The verdict is absurd

Verdict in Pamplona Gang Rape Case Sets Off Immediate Outcry

In a case that was seen as a bellwether for women’s rights in Spain, a court on Thursday sentenced five men for sexually abusing a woman during the bull-running festival of Pamplona, but cleared them of raping her, to the dismay of women’s associations.

Shortly after the verdict, various women’s groups announced that they would lead protests on Thursday evening across Spain to condemn the ruling. 

The five men were sentenced to nine years in prison for “continuous sexual abuse,” rather than the almost 23 years in prison that the prosecution had sought for rape and other charges.

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An 18-year-old woman, whose identity has been protected by the authorities, was attacked in the early hours of the morning by five men, who filmed the assault using a cellphone. 

The incident set off mass street protests and a national outcry at the time.

The court on Thursday found the five young men, who are from Seville, guilty of “sexual abuse” of the woman, but cleared them of the more serious charge of rape, which must involve violence or intimidation under Spanish law.

On top of their prison sentence, the men were ordered to pay a combined 50,000 euros ($60,600) in compensation to the woman. 

One of the defendants, who was a military police officer at the time, was also fined €900 for stealing her cellphone.

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Thursday’s verdict followed a long trial that had already set off significant controversy after lawyers for the five men started to portray the victim as a consenting sexual partner who suffered no lasting damage.

The defendants’ lawyers also used a private detective to follow the woman and gather evidence that she returned to a normal life after the assault, but part of that evidence was eventually withdrawn by the judges. 

Instead, the woman said that she was undergoing long-term therapy to help her overcome the trauma of the sexual assault.

Following Thursday’s ruling, Soledad Murillo, a former state secretary for gender equality, called for an overhaul of Spain’s criminal code. 

The ruling, she said, left the impression that “these guys went a bit too far but didn’t want to hurt.”

Pedro Sánchez, the leader of the main Socialist opposition party, wrote on Twitter: “If what the wolf pack did as a group wasn’t violence against a defenseless woman, what do we then understand to be rape?”

The official spokesman of the Basque regional government, Josu Erkoreka, warned that the ruling would give legitimacy to machismo violence and would not be understood “by the society of the 21st century.”