The alleged rape of Noelia Castillo by a group of immigrants: a narrative circulating in at least six languages
The claim that Noelia Castillo was raped by a group of immigrants is one of the most widely circulated narratives in the days leading up to the 25-year-old's euthanasia. Some accounts specifically mention that the alleged immigrants are from North Africa. While Castillo stated in a television interview that she had suffered at least two sexual assaults and another attempted rape, she never mentioned the nationality of her attackers. Maldita.es also contacted the Directorate General for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents of the Catalan Government, which confirmed to Maldita.es that Noelia Castillo was in two children's homes between 2015 and 2019 and that they have no record of any sexual assault suffered by the young woman during her time in those centers.
Despite this, the content has been amplified in English by accounts ranging from the conservative and MAGA spectrum in the US, to publications and organizations linked to the Kremlin, and by parties and organisations that defend anti-immigration positions, as we reported on Maldita.es. But not only.
In Slovenia, the website Pokukaj.si embedded in a post a tweet from March 25 by the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, which in turn quoted the Twitter (now X) user Muy Mona (@Capitana_espana) with statements such as “the unaccompanied minors rape her. And the solution the State offers is to make her commit suicide.” The Slovenian website also included a tweet from Vox MEP Hermann Tertsch, echoing the same narrative, and another from Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a 26-year-old political commentator from Amsterdam (Netherlands), who, as Wired and the BBC explained, has spread the conspiracy theory of "I will not eat insects," which claims that they are going to replace the meat we eat with insects.
Also in the Balkans, specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a “religious news” website published an article stating: “In 2022, Noelia was placed in a state institution due to family difficulties. There, she was raped by a group of North African immigrants.” This narrative also appeared in Instagram posts, for example, on the account of a local actor with over 300,000 followers, who shared a photo with the logo of Visegrád 24, a channel that, according to a report by the Center for Information Integrity in Africa, “combines far-right, anti-immigrant, and anti-Islamic rhetoric with targeted influence operations” and which disseminated the story that Noelia had been raped by immigrants.
The same story has been spread in other European countries. Former Italian Senator Simone Pillon, of the League party, shared it on March 26. And a user posted a message in French, which has garnered over a million views, claiming that she was raped by unaccompanied minors.
In the United States, the New York Post reported on March 31: “Trump Administration to Investigate Euthanasia of Gang Rape Victim and Rebukes Spain for 'Human Rights Failures'.” This publication cited a diplomatic leak as its source. According to the Ministry of Health's Communications Department, speaking to Maldita.es, “nothing has reached the ministry” regarding the Trump Administration's intention to investigate Noelia Castillo's euthanasia. For her part, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, said in a tweet, referring to Trump, "that he should stop feeding the ultra-international agenda by sticking his nose into everything" and that "Spain is a serious country, with a solid health system and a framework of rights that protects and cares for all people."
In that New York Post article, they also claim that “the State Department indicated it believes Spain’s lax immigration laws could be the cause of the sexual assaults.” This claim is based on the misinformation that immigrants sexually assaulted Noelia, a claim neither she nor her family have publicly made.
The narrative has also spread throughout Latin America. Fact-checkers like Chequeado (Argentina) and Verificado.mx (Mexico), which, like Maldita.es, belong to the IFCN, have also verified the misinformation, as it has spread to those countries.
“The first euthanasia due to depression,” another of the most repeated narratives about Noelia Castillo
The reason Noelia Castillo requested and was granted euthanasia has also been the focus of these narratives. Disinformation points to “depression” as the cause, sometimes claiming that the young woman was “the first person to receive euthanasia due to depression in Spain.” But the ruling provided to Maldita.es by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia states that “the patient suffers limitations on her physical autonomy and daily activities, to the point that she cannot care for herself; she presents constant physical and psychological suffering, repeatedly expressed as intolerable by herself to the various professionals who have assessed her; absence of a prognosis for improvement or cure, expressly stated in the reports included in the administrative file” [p. 15].
Regarding her mental problems, it is stated that, in the opinion of the doctors who assessed her, "the disorders that Noelia presents do not affect her capacity for reasoning and will" and that the borderline personality disorder she presents "is not an illness, but the way of being of a person, so it is not susceptible to cure" [p. 23].
Even so, it's another example of the disinformation narratives that have spread far beyond Spain:
From El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele quoted a tweet, again from the user X Muy Mona (@Capitana_espana), whose content we have debunked on Maldita.es, which made claims such as, “In 24 hours, Noelia will be the first person to receive euthanasia for depression in Spain.”
In the United States, Lila Rose, founder of the pro-life organisation Live Action, shared the news with a message on her Facebook profile: “Spain will perform euthanasia on 25-year-old Noelia Castillo Ramos, who suffers from depression.”
Other similar groups, such as CitizenGo, the international branch of Hazte Oír, also shared the news in an English-language tweet stating: “Noelia, 25, will undergo euthanasia tomorrow due to depression.”
We also see this in another tweet that is about to reach seven million views as of April 1, 2026. It's a post by Ada Lluch, a Spanish influencer and supporter of White House policies, who also shares the narrative that she was raped by immigrants.
French is another language in which this narrative has spread. We find posts on X, for example, from accounts claiming to be French “independent media” with statements such as: “Noelia Castillo Ramos, a 25-year-old woman, will die tonight at 6:00 p.m. in Barcelona as part of euthanasia authorized by the Spanish State, after it determined that it could not alleviate her depression and psychological distress.”
From a Spanish-language interview to content in several languages, the narrative claiming that “the organs were already committed”
Polonia Castellanos, president of Christian Lawyers (an organisation that has represented Noelia Castillo’s father in his attempt to halt the right to die process), stated in a YouTube interview that the young woman’s mother was notified by the hospital that “she could not delay euthanasia because her organs had already been allocated to other patients.”
This narrative has also crossed borders. The Mexican fact-checking organisation Verificado.mx has verified this and other narratives related to Noelia Castillo. But it hasn’t only gone viral in Spanish. The statements of the president of Christian Lawyers have been translated into other languages, thus increasing the reach of this narrative.
For example, on March 26, a user on X with over 100,000 followers and a link in their bio to a website called White Lives Matter (a slogan used by white supremacist groups) posted Polonia Castellanos's video with English subtitles. This post has accumulated 2.8 million views in just a few days and has been reposted by other profiles in both English and Italian.
Grégor Puppinck, a French jurist and director general of the European Centre for Law and Justice (a Christian organisation dedicated to advocacy and litigation before European and international institutions), posted a tweet lending credibility to the words of the president of Christian Lawyers. Alongside a subtitled excerpt from her interview, he wrote in French: “I know Ms. Polonia Castellanos, the Spanish lawyer representing Noelia Castillo Ramos’s parents, very well, and I have complete confidence in her. I questioned her. She confirmed these statements.” This post has garnered over 97,000 views. It is not the only one sharing this narrative in French.
The National Protocol for Organ Donation Following the Application of Assisted Dying Services states that the patient may “revoke consent to donation at any time during the process, without needing to justify it and without prejudice to the patient receiving assisted dying services.” It also stipulates that both the decision to request euthanasia and the subsequent donation “must be independent and made consciously, voluntarily, and freely.” Furthermore, the person must give their informed consent for the donation. Christian Lawyers has disseminated other misleading narratives about organ donation and the transplant system in Spain.
Noelia Castillo's alleged last-minute request to postpone euthanasia: a real document the young woman claimed to have signed "under pressure" in 2024
Another narrative claims that the young woman regretted her decision and intended to halt the procedure, but the authorities prevented her. This is based on a handwritten document that, as we reported on Maldita.es, does exist. However, according to the court ruling, Noelia Castillo later claimed that she "didn't even know what she was writing." She signed it days before the date she was initially scheduled to receive euthanasia (August 2, 2024), and, according to the ruling, she herself stated that she did so under pressure. She later ratified her decision to die with dignity before a notary. Even so, this document has been used to spread misinformation about Noelia Castillo and her decision to undergo euthanasia.
On March 31, the US website Human Events, which also spread the idea that Noelia Castillo was raped by a group of immigrants, published an article in English titled “Noelia Castillo Ramos asked for 6 more months to reconsider euthanasia; Spain carried it out anyway, according to the family’s lawyer.” According to the article, Polonia Castellanos said that the authorities rejected the young woman’s alleged written request “to postpone her death” so that she could “reconsider her decision,” referring to the document that the court did not recognize as evidence.
Grégor Puppinck, the French jurist, also echoed these words from the president of Christian Lawyers. On March 30, the day before the Human Events article was published, he wrote in X: “Noelia requested in writing a 6-month postponement of her euthanasia to have time to think, but her request was ignored by the administration on the grounds that she had expressed 'only doubts,' which had no legal standing.”
This article was made possible thanks to the collaboration of Faktograf (Croacia), Science Feedback (France), Pagella Politica (Italy), Verificado.mx (Mexico) and Chequeado (Argentina).