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UKRAINE

Spain arrests two for smuggling military kit to Russia

Spanish investigators said Wednesday they had arrested a Ukrainian and a Russian on suspicion of smuggling military aeronautical equipment to Russia, defying an EU embargo linked to the Ukraine war.

Spain arrests two for smuggling military kit to Russia
Spain arrests two for smuggling military kit to Russia. Photo: CRISTINA QUICLER / AFP

They were arrested at separate locations in the northern Basque Country in an operation by police and customs investigators to stop an “imminent” shipment to Russia, an interior ministry statement said.

“The raid was launched to prevent the imminent dispatching from the EU territory of equipment for the cockpits of military aircraft,” it said, without saying when it happened.

Investigators were tipped off in June 2021 about a married couple, both Ukrainians, who were running a Spanish company “evading existing export controls, thereby committing a smuggling offence”.

While checking the firm’s export records, investigators discovered a network to supply military equipment to Moscow’s aeronautical sector with a “profound knowledge of transportation logistics”.

It had designed a “sophisticated system of international customs documentation” that allowed it to ship goods “to countries not facing an embargo when in reality the destination was Russia”.

Investigators arrested two suspects – a Ukrainian and a Russian – one of whom was running the network, the statement said.

A police spokeswoman was not able to clarify whether the detained Ukranian was one of the two people running the company. One of the suspects has been placed in pre-trial detention.

During the raid, investigators also seized documentation and computer equipment as well as two high-end vehicles.

The statement said Russia’s military industry had been “severely impacted” by an EU arms embargo.

The EU first banned arms exports to Moscow following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, but has significantly tightened the rules through sweeping sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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CRIME

Top Spanish court rules kiss without consent is sexual assault

Spain's Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a kiss without "tacit consent" can be considered sexual assault, just months before former football federation chief Luis Rubiales will stand trial over his unsolicited kiss at the Women's World Cup.

Top Spanish court rules kiss without consent is sexual assault

The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling from the southern region of Andalusia which convicted a police officer of sexual assault and sentenced him to one year and nine months in jail for kissing a woman on the cheek who was in police custody.

“A ‘stolen kiss’, and thus without express or implied consent, constitutes sexual assault in actuality,” the court said, adding that “it is clear that the fleeting contact of a non-consensual kiss represents a bodily invasion”.

“A ‘no’ from the victim is not necessary in the face of attempts to kiss a woman, but rather that for there not to be a crime, what is needed is consent. The key is consent, to the point that if consent has not been given, there has been sexual aggression.”

The issue of whether an unsolicited kiss can be considered sexual assault is a hot topic in Spain since Rubiales provoked worldwide outrage by kissing star player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the medal ceremony after Spain beat England to win the World Cup in Australia last year.

At the time, Rubiales, 46, brushed it off as “a consensual” peck on the lips, but Hermoso, 34, said it was not.

She filed a lawsuit against Rubiales in September, telling the judge she had come under pressure to defend him both on the flight back from Australia and on a subsequent team holiday to Ibiza in the Balearic Islands.

Rubiales is set to stand trial from February 3 to 19 over the kiss. Public prosecutors have requested a sentence of two-and-a-half years in prison for Rubiales – one year for sexual assault and 18 months for coercion.

The former federation chief, who quit his post last year in the wake of the controversy, told private Spanish television station La Sexta in April that he could not understand how it could be labelled as sexual assault, saying there was “no sexual context” to it.

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