Irene Montero regrets the decision of the Supreme Court on the law of “only yes is yes” without assuming any error

2023-06-07 15:16:28

The Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, has described it as “bad news” the decision of the Supreme Court to endorse the reductions in sentences for sexual offenders derived from the application of the “only yes is yes” law, a position that contradicts the criteria of the State Attorney General’s Office.

“The Supreme Court rejects the unanimous criteria of the Prosecutor’s Office regarding the validity of the transitory law. It is bad news,” Montero published this Wednesday on his Twitter account without making any kind of self-criticism. Both Equality and the Prosecutor’s Office defended that the sentences should not be reduced in a final sentence if they were included in the range of the new normbut the Criminal Chamber has rejected all the appeals of the Public Ministry that postulated the increase in sentences, with the exception of the accessory penalties of the rights to parental authority, guardianship and curatorship.

Given this news, the head of Equality has indicated that “it is essential to speed up the implementation of all the measures of the law of the only yes is yes that protect women victims of sexual violence”, such as the “judicial specialization, free legal assistance, crisis centers, psychologists and lawyers without the need to file a complaint”.

The more than 1,000 reductions that have occurred in the Spanish courts in recent months will remain as they are. The Plenary of the Criminal Chamber has decided reject the appeals presented by the Prosecutor’s Office that sought to increase the sentences, with the exception of accessory penalties related to the rights of parental authority, guardianship and curatorship. This extreme is the only one in which the high court agrees with the Prosecutor’s Office.

Of the 29 appeals analyzed by the Supreme Court, 27 have been unanimously resolved in plenary. One of them was decided by majority, without any particular vote, while in the other case, in which Judge Andrés Palomo acted as rapporteur, there was a change of paper that will now be in charge of Judge Leopoldo Puente. This last issue will be the only one that will have individual votes.

With this ruling, the Supreme Court establishes a jurisprudence on the review of final judgments under the ‘only yes is yes’ law, to provide clarity to the autonomous courts, which do not agree on their way of proceeding, since some have reduced the sentences, while others have not.