Minimum Threshold
Two of the five Seville men in the WhatsApp group known as the La Manada, convicted of a continuing offense of gang rape during the Sanfermines of 2016, have asked for a reduction of their sentences under Law 10/2022 on the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom, commonly referred to as the Yes Means Yes law, promoted by former Equality Minister Irene Montero in the previous legislative term.
These are José Ángel Prenda and Jesús Escudero, who have sent a written submission to Section Two of the Navarra Court of Appeal, the tribunal that initially convicted them to nine years in prison each for a crime of sexual abuse.
However, the Supreme Court reversed that initial verdict and sentenced all five members of La Manada to 15 years in prison for a continuous rape against the victim.
In their filing, José Ángel Prenda and Jesús Escudero invoke Law 10/2022 on the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom and point to more than a thousand reductions derived from unifying the offenses of abuse and sexual assault into a single category. They argue that when two penal norms with different effective dates collide, the more favorable sentence for the defendant must be applied.
The Navarra Court of Appeal initially rejected Ángel Boza’s petition to reduce his sentence to 13 years and nine months under the Yes Means Yes law, but later the Navarra Higher Court granted the defense’s request and lowered the sentence to 14 years.
Minimum Threshold
The TSJN agreed that the sentence should be reduced because the Supreme Court had indicated in its ruling on the case that imposing 15 years was “near the minimum” legally, and the Yes Means Yes reform significantly reduced those minimums in its text, as noted by the TSJN.
Thus, under the new law the maximum penalty for the attributed offense remains unchanged, but the minimum drops by one year and three months, going from 14 years, 3 months and 1 day to 13 years.
“As a consequence, the 15-year prison term stands two years above the new minimum possible within the penological arc, yet, in the view of the majority of this Court, it no longer aligns with the parameter set by the Supreme Court when it described the sentence as ‘very close to the minimum legal,’ or as a sentence ‘above the minimum legally expected, though very near it,’ which led the TSJN to reduce Ángel Boza’s sentence from 15 to 14 years,” the TSJN explained.
The Supreme Court
In July 2024, the Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed this reduction from 15 to 14 years, a decrease that had been decreed in September 2023 by the Navarra Superior Court for Boza alone.
The Supreme Court found the TSJN’s approach reasonable in aligning with the parameters set by the full Penal Chamber when applying the law after its entry into force. Now, two other defendants, Ángel Prenda and Jesús Escudero, have filed petitions for revision in the same vein, which have been forwarded to the other parties so they can present their arguments within five days. Once responses are received, the Navarra Court of Appeal Section Two will issue a ruling.
The convict Alfonso Jesús Cabezuelo, a former military member, expressed his desire to “fulfill the sentence” under the terms dictated by the verdict and to pursue reintegration.