Spanish PM Apologizes to Victims of Sexual Harassment Regarding Legal Reform Gaps

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. (Wikimedia Commons/Fernando Calvo Rollan)

JAKARTA - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez apologized in an interview published on Sunday to victims of sexual abuse, regarding a law on sexual violence that includes loopholes that allowed at least 978 perpetrators who were jailed, to get their sentences reduced or terminated early.

The “Only Yes Is Yes” laws, which came about partly as a result of public outrage over the so-called Wolf Pack case, centered on consent and were meant to settle cases, where the accused was convicted of a lesser crime of sexual assault, because the victim had don't fight out of fear.

However, because the new law carries a lower minimum sentence - the result of combining the crimes of sexual harassment and aggression - it has allowed some perpetrators who were convicted before the law was enacted, to successfully seek reduced sentences or early release.

After the law was passed in October, sentences in 978 cases have been reduced and 104 detainees have been freed by March 31, the General Council of Judiciaries - the highest body of judges - said last week.

"Some of these releases or reviews are not final, they can still be appealed. But in any case, there are unwanted effects that we have to work out," PM Sanchez said in an interview with El Correo newspaper, quoted by Reuters, April 17.

"If we have to apologize to the victims, I apologize to the victims," ​​continued PM Sanchez.

In time, the issue had split the three-year coalition, with the Socialists interested in reforming the law but their ruling partner Unidas Podemos rejecting their suggestions.

It is known that fighting gender violence has been high on the coalition's agenda since the "Wolf Pack" case, in which five men who called themselves by that name were jailed for lesser crimes of sexual harassment in 2018, after raping a young woman on the sidelines of a Pamplona's bull running festival in 2016.