He says that “there is no possible automatism” in the reviews of sentences for sexual abuse
MADRID, 30 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, has assured that “prudence” must be exercised and “wait to see what is the definitive criterion that the Supreme Court may have” on the revisions of sentences for sexual abuse and/or assaults in application of the law of ‘only yes is yes’.
This has been pronounced this Wednesday in Congress in the context of the urgent interpellation urged by the PP to give an account of “the serious consequences that it has caused” the entry into force of the Organic Law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom.
Llop’s petition takes place after yesterday Tuesday the Supreme Court ruled on the application of the ‘law of only yes is yes’ in the framework of the ‘Arandina case’, establishing that the sentence may be reduced for those convicted of crimes due to the entry into force of the new norm, although he insisted on the need to analyze it on a case-by-case basis.
The magistrates of the High Court stressed that “Law 10/2022 may be applied to the benefit of the prisoner when a lower penalty is now set in those cases in which it is appropriate, but analyzing it on a case-by-case basis, and not globally.” This contrasts with the criterion established last week by the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, so that sentences will not be modified when they can be imposed with the new criminal framework, a criterion that would avoid an “automatic” reduction of sentences.
This Wednesday, Llop explained that with the ‘only yes is yes’ law there are “cases that today are punished in some cases with more serious penalties than before, just as there are cases that are also punished with a lesser penalty.” As he has said, this is “the consequence of a new model that integrates assault and sexual abuse into a single crime.”
In this sense, he stressed that “in the matter of revisions there is no possible automatism”. “It is not about today reviewing the lowest sentence for those who were then punished for an assault with the lowest sentence. This is the criterion that the State Attorney General’s Office has also followed and that other provincial hearings also follow,” he said. added.
Llop has stressed that there are “divergent criteria” among the provincial courts. According to data collected by Europa Press, so far, 17 of the 52 provincial hearings have manifested themselves on the Organic Law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom.
A total of 11 have said that they are in favor of applying the most favorable revisions to the prisoner; three have not set a clear position, pointing to the need to review case by case; and another three have reported that it will not reduce the sentences when the sentences that were imposed can also be imposed under the new legal framework established by law.
Faced with this scenario, this Wednesday Llop has advocated being prudent “to see what is the definitive criterion that the Supreme Court may have.”
Llop has stressed that this law “is a good law.” “It is a good law to protect the rights of women victims of sexual attacks. Every time rights are expanded in our country we are facing progress”, she has pointed out.
The minister reiterated that “it is a good law to protect victims” by providing them with “comprehensive policies to prevent sexual violence” and responding to “one of the most serious forms of violence, but also the most common.”
“It was time that the victim did not have to prove anything and that we were aware of the importance of consent. It should never be presumed that there is consent in any sexual relationship,” he snapped.
Llop, in addition, has defended that the approved text is the power of the Executive and that it presents “an option as valid as the one that a government can choose in its criminal policy.”
The deputy of the PP Marta González Vázquez has reproached Llop for having distanced himself from the approval of the law because he was not in the Council of Ministers in which the text was approved. “He has had 385 days to find out what was going to happen,” she told him.
“The responsibility for the disaster lies with the Government as a whole, but especially with the Minister for Equality, (Irene Montero) and with you,” added the ‘popular’ leader in her speech. Thus, the deputy has criticized that the Executive of Pedro Sánchez has “lowered the criminal response to sexual violence”, in reference to the at least 42 convicts who have benefited from the application of the law.
“Some already say, Madam Minister, unfortunately that the true denomination of the law should be that of the integral guarantee of the sexual freedom of the aggressor, since they are the only beneficiaries of their disastrous and surprising way of legislating,” he said.
In response, the minister has reproached the PP for its position regarding divorce, abortion and equal marriage. “They have never been on the side of women to decide their sexual and reproductive rights,” she has indicated.
In addition, Llop has criticized that in the debates that took place in Congress on the ‘only yes is yes’ law, the opposition “trivialized” the issue of consent and it was even said that it was a “punitivist” law. Thus, he has stressed that this organic law has received criticism “for one thing and the opposite”, in reference to the fact that it is now said that the law lowers the criminal response to sexual violence.
On the sidelines, the head of Justice has accused the PP of being “part-time constitutionalists” by maintaining the blockade on the negotiation on the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). “Look what they are doing. They are generating the biggest constitutional crisis in our country,” she said.
