Agustín Martínez, the lawyer for the five men convicted in the La Manada or "wolf pack" gang rape case, is working on an appeal to seek a reduced prison term for one of his clients, sentenced by the Supreme Court to 15 years' jail for a crime of rape with specific aggravating factors of degrading treatment and joint action by two or more people, in application of Spain's new Law to Guarantee Sexual Freedom, widely known as the 'Only yes means yes' law. This was confirmed on Thursday by Martínez himself in an interview with Canal Sur Radio, without the lawyer providing more details on the appeal, other than that he is already working on it and "in theory" it will only affect one of the group of five convicted in the case.
Although the lawyer did not specify which of his clients could benefit from such an appeal, the new 'Only yes means yes' law could in practice allow only Ángel Boza to obtain a reduced sentence: in his case, a one-year reduction is possible in his 15-year sentence for the gang rape that occurred during Pamplona's San Fermin festival in 2016. The other four members of the group of men from Seville were found guilty of additional offences and thus could not benefit from any reduction.
Criticism of minister Montero
Martínez defended during the interview that this reduction in the sentence "is perfectly possible because the minimum sentences have been reduced and the sentence handed down at the time by the Supreme Court specifically referred to applying the minimum penalty and, thus, with that minimum having been modified, I understand that the application of the current norm is more favourable." The lawyer for the La Manada group rejected the criticisms made by the Spanish equality minister, Irene Montero, who defends the text of the law and attributes the reduction of rapists' sentences to sexism which "may cause there to be judges who apply the law incorrectly or apply it in a defective way".
"Bad law"
In his opinion, what the new Law of Guarantees of Sexual Freedom has achieved is "absolutely absurd", which is why he urged Irene Montero to clarify "why all the minimum sentences have been lowered", something that he considers "inexplicable and that makes no sense" to the point that it allows to "decriminalize some types of sex offence, no matter how scandalous that may be." "Obviously there are no sexist courts in this country or biased interpretations, but simply bad law," concluded Agustín Martínez.
The outrage caused across Spain by the case of La Manada, first by social repulsion against the horrific nature of the crime, and then by the apparent lenience in treatment of the perpertrators by the courts and the law, was an important factor in the momentum for the drafting of the new law. It is known as the 'Only yes means yes' law because one of its provision states that affirmative consent is required for sex, not just the absence of a "no".
This Wednesday, it was confirmed that a former soldier from Barcelona has accepted a two-year prison sentence - which had been suspended - for disseminating, via the internet, data and images of the victim of the gang rape at the Sanfermines in 2016. This Wednesday's trial on the ex-soldier's case at Barcelona criminal court No. 1 ended with an agreement between the prosecution and the defence, with the man also agreeing to pay a fine of 1,320 euros and pay the woman 20,000 euros in compensation.