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Spain arrests eight after civil guards die in drug chase

Spain's Guardia Civil on Saturday announced eight arrests after a drug traffickers' boat hit a patrol vessel and killed two officers during a chase.

Spain arrests eight after civil guards die in drug chase
Spanish Guardia Civil stand as boat crew members tie an alleged narco-submarine before towing it in Galicia. Photo: Miguel RIOPA/AFP.

The civil guard arrested three of the boat’s passengers following Friday’s incident in the southern port of Barbate near Cádiz that also saw two officers injured.

Two others who travelled by vehicle to pick up the passengers were also detained, the civil guard said.

READ ALSO: Two Spanish Guardia Civil killed in drug raid chase: police

Several hours later, the force announced “three other passengers who had fled the boat” were detained.

The AUGC, an association representing the paramilitary police, and Spanish media shared a video showing a night-time chase in the port involving several vessels.

One of the two injured officers remains in hospital but is out of danger, the civil guard added.

Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska visited the scene of the incident and called the event an “assassination” and promised “zero impunity” in efforts to stop drug trafficking.

The government of the nearby British enclave of Gibraltar also expressed its condolences for the officer’s deaths.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he “deeply regrets” the deaths, while the country’s royal family said on the same social network that it was “deeply saddened”.

The sea off Cádiz has seen several confrontations and major drug seizures by customs and police.

Spain is a major transit point for narcotics arriving in Europe from North Africa.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain Europe’s cocaine gateway?

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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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