Spain govt says to alter rape law to fix loopholes

Spain’s leftwing government said Monday it was looking to modify a landmark law to fight sexual violence to close a loophole that has let some convicted offenders reduce their sentences.

The controversy erupted in November barely six weeks after the “Only yes means yes” law came into force which reformed the criminal code in a bid to define all non-consensual sex as rape.

“We are working on a technical level.. to make some adjustments to this law, which we’re proud of but which actually has some undesired effects we’re going to try to limit with these modifications,” government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez told public radio.

The aim was to shift the focus in cases of sexual violence from the victims’ resistance to a women’s free and clearly expressed consent.

To this end, the charge of sexual abuse was dropped and everything was grouped under sexual assault, with the range of penalties widened to include all possibilities under that single term.

The law effectively reduces the minimum and the maximum punishment in some specific cases with hundreds applying to have their sentences revised.

Rodriguez’s remarks confirmed weekend reports the government was mulling changes, hiking tensions between Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists and hard-left junior coalition partner Podemos, which has championed the legislation.

The right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) quickly moved to offer parliamentary support if the Socialists wanted to make the changes without the support of Podemos.

But the offer infuriated Podemos with Equality Minister Irene Montero saying it would effectively return the law to what it was beforehand, and vowing she would do “whatever necessary” to ensure consent was kept at the centre.

“We will protect the essence of the ‘only yes means yes’ law… and keep consent at the very heart of it,” she told a party gathering on Sunday.

“We will do whatever necessary to protect women and feminist achievements against the likes of the Popular Party who want to take us backward after the greatest advance in 20 years in the fight against sexist violence.”

Since the law came into force, around 20 offenders have been released and some 300 others have seen their sentences reduced, media reports said.

Until now, rape victims had needed to prove they were subjected to violence or intimidation. Without that, the offence was considered “sexual abuse” and carried lighter penalties than rape.

With “sexual abuse” dropped from the reformed criminal code and a much wider range of offences grouped under “sexual assault”, a broader range of penalties was required to ensure proportionality.