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GENDER VIOLENCE

Man jailed in Spain for hitting wife live on TikTok

A Spanish man who slapped his wife during a TikTok livestream was sentenced on Monday to a year in jail although the victim declined to file a police complaint.

Man jailed in Spain for hitting wife live on TikTok
The woman had declined to press charges against her husband and refused to take the stand against him during the trial.(Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

A court in the northern city of Soria found the man guilty of violence against women, banned him from coming within 300 metres (1,000 feet) of his wife or communicating with her for three years, and of acquiring a weapon during that time.

The sentence stems from an incident during a TikTok “battle” — a real-time competition between streamers where the winner is decided by viewers — held between the woman and three men during the early hours of January 28th.

In images that went viral in Spain, the man is seen slapping his wife in the face so hard that her head turns and she bursts out crying.

“The defendant assaulted his wife publicly and openly, in front of thousands of people, with the aim of undermining her physical integrity and humiliating her in public,” the court ruled.

“There is no need for a complaint from the victim in gender violence crimes. These should be punished once it becomes clear they have been committed,” the court added.

“Broadcasting the slap live is sufficient for the authorities to step in and protect the victim, regardless of whether she recognises herself as such.”

The woman had declined to press charges against her husband and refused to take the stand against him during the trial.

But the court said police had been called to the couple’s home in the past because of “disputes between the accused and his wife” which proved there was “continued mistreatment”.

Successive Spanish governments on both the right and left have made the fight against domestic violence a priority.

Parliament in 2004 overwhelmingly approved Europe’s first law to specifically crack down on gender-based violence.

It established special courts and offered free legal aid for victims, and set up a hotline that would not appear on users’ phone bills.

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CRIME

Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

Europol said Thursday that a crime ring smuggling drugs into Europe had collapsed as the result of an investigation involving 40 arrests and the seizure of eight tonnes of cocaine.

Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

The Hague-based European police force said the entire cartel, whose leaders were based in Turkey and Dubai, had been dealt a major blow after a final set of arrests Wednesday.

The vast three-year-long operation involved police forces from a dozen countries and ranged from Brazil to Spain via Turkey.

According to Europol, the final phase of the operation began with the discovery in August 2023 by the Spanish Guardia Civil of 700 kilos (1,540 pounds)of cocaine in a boat off the Canary Islands, crewed by Croat and Italian citizens.

After exchanging their findings with other police forces, the investigators found links with previous seizures which led to the identification of the masterminds.

In all, 40 people were arrested in six countries, including two top Croat members of the network, who were arrested at the end of 2023 in Istanbul, police said.

The last four arrests took place on Wednesday in Spain, according to Europol.

In one operation witnessed by an AFP journalist, heavily armed members of Spain’s Guardia Civil arrested a 40-year-old man at dawn at his home near Marbella, a seaside resort popular with drug traffickers.

The smugglers shipped cocaine from South America to logistical hubs in west Africa and the Canary Islands.

The drugs were then sent on to centres in Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy and Spain for distribution across Europe.

Many of the drug network’s assets, with a total value of several tens of millions of euros, had been seized or frozen, Europol added.

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