MIAMI, United States. – The flamenco singer Diego “El Cigala” was sentenced to two years and one month in prison for several crimes of abuse committed against his ex-partner, the singer Kina Méndez, according to a report from The Country.
The resolution condemning the musician, issued by a judge in Andalusia, was announced this Tuesday by the press office of the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) and can still be appealed.
The sentence not only imposes a prison sentence, but also prohibits El Cigala from communicating or approaching the victim within 200 meters for six months. In addition, he is ordered to serve 25 days of permanent location in a different address far from that of Méndez.
According to The Countrythe ruling considers it proven that the artist committed three crimes in the field of violence against women, in addition to a minor and continuous crime of humiliation.
The condemned events correspond to three specific episodes. The first occurred in the summer of 2017 at a hotel in Jerez de la Frontera, where the singer allegedly slapped Méndez during an argument. The second episode took place two years later in a hotel in Palafrugell (Girona), where, according to the sentence, “he gave her a push that made her fall to the ground and continued hitting and kicking her body.”
Finally, the third incident happened in November 2020, again in Jerez de la Frontera, when the singer allegedly “grabbed his partner by the neck,” insulting her, after a recrimination for drug use in front of his children.
During the trial, held in November, Diego “El Cigala” denied the accusations. “I have never laid a hand on a woman,” he declared, according to The Jerez Newspaper. For her part, Méndez, whose real name is Dolores Ruiz Méndez, assured the court that she had not reported it before “out of shame” and that her intention was to resolve the situation without reaching this extreme, given that she was “very in love” with the artist. .
El Cigala, born Ramón Jiménez Salazar and 55 years old, is a prominent flamenco figure with wide international projection. Winner of five Latin Grammys, he achieved fame with productions such as black tears next to the Cuban Bebo Valdeswhich entered the Billboard charts, and other works that earned him recognition in the field of flamenco and Latin music.
In 2021, the singer had already been investigated for alleged gender violence after complaints filed by Méndez herself, with whom he had been in a relationship since 2014. At the time of the sentence being published, El Cigala had not issued public statements.
