MADRID, 15 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish courts have already reviewed at least three sentences after the approval of the ‘law of only yes is yes’ – promoted by the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero – and have reduced the prison sentences of three convicted of sexual abuse to minors considering that the reform of the Criminal Code is “more favorable to the inmate”.
This Tuesday, several cases have emerged in which the sentences imposed have been reduced: in one, the magistrates reduced up to five years in prison; in another, they reduce by two years the sentence of prison imposed in firm; and in a third case they reduce the prison sentence by one year and three months.
On October 7, Section 15 of the Provincial Court of Madrid has reviewed a sentence issued last May in which a man was sentenced to eight years in prison for a crime of sexual abuse of a minor under 16 years of age with carnal access .
In the car, to which Europa Press has had access, the magistrates have explained that “being evidently more favorable, the current regulation must be applied” and have reduced the sentence imposed on a convicted person for continued abuse of several minors by five years.
In this case, the judges have annulled the conviction for three crimes of continued sexual abuse as they do not constitute a crime with the new regulation, while maintaining the rest of the penalties for sexual abuse and a crime of possession of pornography. The penalty is set at six years and nine months in prison.
In another case, the magistrates of Section 17 of the Madrid Provincial Court have agreed to review the sentence imposed on a man who was convicted by final judgment in May 2021. They have reduced the sentence “from eight to six years in prison, which it is more favorable to the prisoner”, according to what is recorded in a car, dated November 7 and to which Europa Press has had access.
According to the original sentence, to which this agency has also had access, on April 3, 2020 the man –of Honduran nationality– abused the daughter of his sentimental partner, who was 13 years old at the time. That same day he was arrested by the authorities.
Now, after the ‘law of only yes is yes’, the Provincial Court of Madrid has explained that what corresponds is to reduce the prison sentence imposed. The magistrates have specified that in this case the circumstances of the case and of the author have been taken into account.
In this sense, they have recalled that in the original sentence “it was considered prudent to impose the minimum sentence imposed at that time.” Thus, they have pointed out that now “the review must take place in the same terms”; that is, the prison sentence should be reduced to six years “with all the consequences that were favorable to him.”
The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) warned in February 2021 in its mandatory report on the preliminary draft of said regulation that its approval would cause the downward revision of those convictions in which maximum penalties had been imposed in accordance with the previous regulation.
Last August, the Congress of Deputies approved the Law of Guarantees of Sexual Freedom, with the only votes against being PP and Vox and CUP abstaining.
