Law letting rapists out of prison early will be reformed by Spanish government

Spain’s prime minister overruled his hard-Left coalition partners on Monday as he pledged to close a loophole in a controversial new rape law that has led to sex offenders being released from prison early.

Ministers from Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party said they would remove the “undesired effects” of the law, which was drawn up by the Leftist Podemos party as one of their landmark progressive reforms.

Mr Sanchez’s party had come under attack from Podemos in recent days for “caving in” to pressure to amend the “yes means yes” law, the latest split to hit the ruling coalition ahead of elections this year.

The new law had created a single offence of rape based purely on lack of consent on the part of the victim. But the minimum sentence for rape is lower than that of the old offence of sexual assault.

Close to 300 sex offenders have seen their sentences cut and some have been released from prison early as judges have allowed the law to be applied retroactively.

Irene Montero, the equality minister from Podemos, blamed judges for misinterpreting the rules on sentencing and said the law was under attack from an “offensive by the political, judicial and media Right”.

She suggested the changes to her law were an effort to undermine her and discredit her party. It is another rift in the ruling coalition, which is under pressure from the Right gaining in popularity.

The main opposition Popular Party has labelled the legislative change and its effect on sentences as a “national disgrace”, and is demanding that Ms Montero resign over the matter.

Consent-based core of law to remain

Following reports over the weekend that Mr Sánchez had decided that it was time to respond by shoring up rape sentencing laws, it was announced on Monday that a “correction” to the new law was being drawn up.

Pilar Alegría, the chief spokesman for the Socialist Party, said the law would be changed as a result of the sentence-cutting fiasco, whether Unidas Podemos agreed or not.

But Félix Bolaños, minister for the prime minister’s office, said that the consent-based core of the reform would remain unaffected.

“We cannot allow that rape trials go back to poring over whether the woman offered enough resistance or how she was dressed; consent is central to the current law and will be to any change we make,” Mr Bolaños said.

In any case, the expected reform will not stop prisoners currently serving sentences for rape from benefiting as it cannot be applied retroactively.

Ms Montero said the hidden intention behind what she called campaign of “social alarm” about reduced sentences was to “return to the old model, where we women have to show that we resisted and that violence was used against us for it to be considered rape”.

Spanish law in line with British

The reform created a single offence of rape based purely on lack of consent on the part of the victim, replacing a system where perpetrators could be convicted of the lesser crime of sexual abuse if no violence or intimidation could be proven.

The Spanish law is now in line with the British legal definition of rape as penetration without consent or reasonable belief that consent has been given.

But Ms Montero has put the ruling to reduce sentences down to a prevalent “sexism” among judges who she says are failing to apply factors such as abuse of superiority or authority as laid down by the new legislation.

Earlier this month, the equality ministry announced a change in rules to allow women victims of rape to request that their assailant be obliged to wear an electronic tracking device on release from prison.

The system, previously applied only in cases where a risk exists of domestic violence, means former convicts can be obliged to wear an electronic band around their ankle or wrist, which sends a warning to the victim and a police monitoring centre if he enters an exclusion zone set up around the victim’s location.