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POLITICS

Spain’s Prime Minister apologises to victims over rape law loophole

Spain's Prime Minister on Sunday apologised to victims for a loophole in a landmark law aimed at fighting sexual violence that has allowed some convicted offenders to reduce their sentences.

Spain's Prime Minister apologises to victims over rape law loophole
Pedro Sánchez speaks at a press conference at the Spanish embassy in Beijing on March 31, 2023. Photo: GREG BAKER/AFP

The law, dubbed “Only yes means yes”, came into effect in October, reforming the criminal code in a bid to define all non-consensual sex as rape.

But since then, at least 104 offenders have been released and another 978 have seen their sentences reduced, according to latest government figures.

In an interview published on Sunday in the El Correo newspaper, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that “I ask victims for forgiveness for these undesired effects”.

“I don’t think any deputy, including those parliamentary groups who voted against the ‘only yes means yes’ law is okay to lower sentences of sexual aggressors,” he was quoted as saying. “That’s why I am asking for forgiveness.”

Under the law, the lesser charge of sexual abuse was dropped and all violations were grouped as sexual assault, which carried stiffer penalties.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain reducing prison sentences for rapists?

The law simultaneously reduced the minimum and the maximum punishment for certain types of sexual crimes, and hundreds have applied to have their sentences revised.

In Spain, sentences can be modified retroactively if a change in the penal code benefits the convicted.

As a result, many of those convicted have seen their sentences reduced, provoking outrage in the country.

The left-wing government has introduced modifications designed to close the loophole, which parliament is currently examining.

“We will put a solution on the table to resolve these problems,” Sánchez said.

Spain is due to hold municipal and regional elections at the end of May and legislative polls at the end of the year.

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POLITICS

First pardons granted under Spain’s amnesty for Catalan separatists

A politician and police officer on Tuesday became the first people to benefit from Spain's divisive amnesty law for Catalan separatists involved in a botched 2017 secession bid.

First pardons granted under Spain's amnesty for Catalan separatists

The amnesty law – approved last month – is expected to affect around 400 people facing trial or already convicted over their roles in the wealthy northeastern region’s failed independence push, which triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez agreed to grant the amnesty in exchange for the key support of Catalan separatist parties in parliament to secure a new term in office following an inconclusive general election last July.

READ ALSO: Spain’s contested Catalan amnesty bill comes into force

The separatist parties have threatened to withdraw their support for Sánchez’s minority government unless the amnesty is applied.

Catalonia’s High Court said it had decided to “declare the extinction of criminal responsibility” for former Catalan regional interior minister Miquel Buch, as well as to Lluís Escolà, an officer in Catalonia’s regional police force, since the crimes they were convicted of “have been amnestied”.

Buch was sentenced last year to four and a half years in jail for embezzlement and misappropriation for hiring Escolà in 2018 and paying him out of public coffers to act as a bodyguard for the former head of the regional Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, while he was in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Escolà was handed a four-year prison sentence for working as Puigdemont’s bodyguard.

Puigdemont fled Spain to avoid arrest shortly after his government led Catalonia’s failed secession push, which involved an independence referendum that was banned by the courts followed by a short-lived declaration of independence.

Spain’s conservative opposition has staged massive street protests against the amnesty law, which judges must decide to apply on a case-by-case basis.

Puigdemont had said he hopes to return to Spain but there is still a warrant for his arrest and a Spanish court continues to investigate him for the alleged crimes of embezzlement and disobedience related to the secession bid.

He also remains under investigation for alleged terrorism over protests in 2019 against the jailing of several referendum leaders that sometimes turned violent.

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