Press releases

In June 2016, the RedUNE association, Network for the Prevention of Sectarianism and Abuse of Weakness, published and began disseminating the blog www.afectadoscrea.org. This blog contains testimonies from former members of the group CREA of the University of Barcelona who have felt affected by the internal functioning of the group.

After the blog was published, the CREA group filed a complaint against RedUNE for alleged crimes of libel and slander with advertising. When the case was still in the investigation phase, and on the same day that people from RedUNE were going to testify in court, CREA presented the withdrawal. This fact left CREA open the possibility of reactivating the criminal procedure later.

However, this December 2021, the Investigative Court No. 12 of Barcelona has decreed the free dismissal of the case, a firm acquittal ruling that determines that RedUNE has never committed the alleged crimes of libel and slander with publicity attributed by the group. CREATES.

Despite CREA’s legal actions towards our work, we have maintained our activity of prevention and dissemination of observed behaviors of a coercive nature, which according to former members of the same, have seriously affected themselves and their immediate environment.

With the aim of serving and giving a voice to anyone who feels affected by the CREA group, the email address redune.afectadoscrea@gmail is still available. com and the blog www.afectadoscrea.org

Today, July 27, 2018, the hearing of the request for conciliation by the CREA research group of the University of Barcelona against RedUNE, Network for Prevention of Cults and Abuse of Weakness, will be take place at the Court of First Instance No. 7 of Donostia.

In this conciliation, CREA wants RedUNE to publicly retract from the spreading activities done up to date to warn about the behavior of the group. They also demands us to stop reporting critically about their operating structure and ask us for a compensation of 50,000€ for moral and honor damages. With the lawsuit that they have filed, CREA wants to silence critics.

We understand that public criticism is an inalienable right, and even more so if we take into account the limited commitment by public authorities to put to an end sectarian behaviors in the society. With the exercise of public criticism we want to contribute to inform and prevent against behaviors that seriously affect people too often.

For all the above, faced with these attempts of censorship from the CREA group we are not going to make any exception: from RedUNE we will continue working to give support to the people affected by psychological manipulation groups and we will continue exercising the freedom of speech to inform about the sectarian practices that we detect. Neither CREA nor any other group will silence us.

In order to serve anyone affected by CREA, the email address redune.afectadoscrea@gmail.com is still available and there is still information on the CREA group on the blog www.afectadoscrea.org.

Although no surprise, we have received with regret the communication that the Public Prosecutor’s Office has decided to close the investigation on the CREA group of the Universitat de Barcelona. The reality is that in our country there is a certain legal lack of protection against the actions of coercive groups. It is very difficult for complaints of psychological manipulation to thrive because there is no legislation to prosecute and punish such acts, and because it is almost always very difficult to provide evidence of this type of abusive behavior.

Obtaining testimonies from recent victims of psychological manipulation, ready to speak and denounce, in this case in the Prosecutor’s Office, is very difficult; And more when it is not possible to protect their identity if the cause thrives. The victims, if they finally decide to denounce, can be exposed to the pressures of these groups in the personal and professional scope, which often ends discouraging them to do so.

RedUNE considers that the fact that the case is closed by the Prosecutor’s Office does not mean that allegations of sectarian practices in the group are false, but that it has not been possible to obtain sufficient evidence and evidence to be able to act at the criminal level. The testimonies collected do not contribute new data to the investigation of 2005, but do confirm that the group’s behavior continues to persist.

From the appearance of the current news on the CREA case (June 2016) to the present day, it has been observed that the strategy of this group has been to divert attention from the complaints about its internal behavior, claiming that they are criticized for defending Victims of gender violence. With this, there has been a use of gender violence, a very serious issue, to hide its functioning. RedUNE also defends these victims, just as it does victims of psychological manipulation. In no case do we defend any stalker. Alert about cases of psychological manipulation is what leads us to denounce the practices that occur within CREA.

For all this, we ask the Rector of the University of Barcelona:
– Open an internal investigation to gather new evidence to clarify the case and take appropriate measures to put an end to these abusive practices.
– Establish effective channels for denouncing this type of behavior, as well as act decisively to this reality, following the recommendations presented by the European Federation of Research Centers and information on sectarianism to the United Nations.

In this sense, university authorities have to assume that, because something is not a crime (or can not be proven as such), it does not mean that something is tolerable or permissible in an educational and scientific institution. In other words, the file by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the aforementioned case should not lead the university authorities to close their eyes and to disregard the repeated undesirable practices of which, with data and testimony, the group has been accused.

At this moment RedUNE wants to be next to the real victims of this case, those people who suffer and have suffered psychological manipulation for being related to the group CREA. Reporting the psychological manipulation and pressures that occur within a group of the University of Barcelona is an act of courage, which should serve to prevent other people.

While waiting for the University to act in this case, we invite all affected people, directly or indirectly (family and friends of members of the group), to send us their testimonies through the following email address: redune.afectadoscrea@gmail.com

RedUNE – Red de Prevención del Sectarismo y del Abuso de Debilidad

January 27, 2017

It has recently come to the media the news of the complaints about the research group CREA of the University of Barcelona that have been put in hands of the public prosecutor’s office.

To that effect, we want to establish that RedUNE’s psychologists specialized in cults have received several cases of people affected by sectarian behaviors suffered in this group.

No matter the purposes of CREA, presented to society as a research center oriented towards the fight against inequality, some of the people who have been part of the group have been affected severely by their operating structure and internal dynamics.

Dynamics that go far beyond individual freedoms, as meddling in the love life habits of the people who are part of the group, friendly relations being controlled as well. All this was combined with a coercive conditioning associated with obtaining scholarships, potential access to prestigious universities and, on the other hand, under the risk of the highest academic ostracism in case of dissention.

We won’t discuss the correctness or incorrectness of the supposedly scientific assumptions that defends the group, but we want to point out that the group continually refers to research projects and dynamics of internal operations endorsed by the international scientific community. These premises serve them as a creed and hook to attract people in the university environment. Mainly, to students who want to participate in transformative experiences and perceived as a theoretically favorable to their professional development environment.

As far as we are concerned, the abuse of the state of vulnerability, coupled with an objective finding of injury of several affected, whose speech is consistent, moves us to declare openly that the research center CREA harbours inadmissible sectarian practices within it.

In order to address and support to anyone affected by CREA we have created the following address: redune.afectadoscrea@gmail.com

RedUNE – Red de Prevención del Sectarismo y del Abuso de Debilidad

15 June 2016