Hundreds Protest Lenient Sex Crime Sentences Outside Ministry of Justice in Madrid

Thousands of people protested in Spain on November 4 against a Spanish court’s ruling that five men accused of raping an unconscious 14-year-old girl would be convicted of the more minor crime of sexual abuse. In Spanish law, rape requires physical coercion, violence or intimidation, and since the girl was unconscious and didn’t fight back, no such coercion was necessary, the defense argued. El Pais reported that the girl said she believed the men had a gun, but the court said her account was too hazy to be reliable. Each of the men was sentenced to between 10 and 12 years for sexual abuse. In 2018, thousands rallied to protest sentencing in a similar case where five men were accused of raping a woman in Pamplona but were convicted of the lesser crime of sexual abuse, resulting in sentences of nine years. The decision not to prosecute the men, one of whom was a civil guard police officer, for rape sparked mass protests across Spain and eventually lead to a Supreme Court ruling adding six years to the men’s sentences, according to reports. In Madrid, hundreds of people rallied outside Spain’s Ministry of Justice building on Monday evening with signs and banners, including one that read “enough already with macho justice.” Video from Sergio Gallinas shows the crowd chanting, “this ministry is also guilty.” Credit: Sergio Gallinas via Storyful

from National | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/32hCXVz