Following the announcement yesterday that the five men who had ‘arguably’ raped a young woman had only been found guilty of sexual abuse, the country erupted.

All over Spain women poured onto the streets to protest at this inexplicable and very controversial judicial decision. In Granada alone over a thousand people turned out at 20.00h in Plaza Nueva to chant the now emblematic phrase, “I do believe you,” (whereas the judges don’t, implied).

The same happened in around 30 Spanish cities, such was the reaction to the sentence – one of the three judges in the tribunal even voted in favour of acquittal.

The gang of men, who called themselves The Pack, amongst whom is a Guardia Civil Policeman and two extremist football supporters, are in preventative prison and have been so for a year awaiting trial.

It was the Guardia Civil policeman who filmed the degrading orgy and who stole the victim’s phone so that she couldn’t phone for help. Amazingly, he hasn’t been thrown out of the force, despite his being found guilty of the lesser charge of sexual abuse.

Filling squares in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, A Coruña, Salamanca, Málaga, Cartagena, Cádiz, Almería, Jaén, Santiago de Compostela, Oviedo, Gijón, Murcia, Córdoba, Huelva, Valladolid and Huesca, amongst others, women chanted their indignation against, what many of them considered, a blatant patriarchal decision.

There was even one down on the coast in Motril on the Plaza de Aurora where around 250 people protested.

Editorial comment: when I arrived in Spain, if a man forced a woman anally, it was only sexual abuse, because only vaginal penetration was considered as rape – with court decisions like this one, not much appears to have changed. But what do you expect when the higher judicial positions are staffed with Franco-nostalgic judges?

(News: Spain)