(21 Jun 2018) Spanish courts triggered a new wave of outrage on Thursday after granting bail to five men acquitted of gang rape and convicted instead on a lesser felony of sexual abuse.
A court in northern Spain set bail at 6000 euros (USD 7,000) each while the men’s appeals against a nine-year prison sentence handed down in April are considered, Spanish news agency Europa Press and other national media reported.
Court officials were not immediately available for comment. It was not clear when the men might leave prison.
An 18-year-old woman said she was attacked during Pamplona’s famed San Fermin bull-running festival in 2016 as she returned to her car.
Prosecutors said the men filmed their attack and boasted about their actions on a WhatsApp group named “La Manada,” or “The (animal) Pack.”
Women’s rights groups, equality campaigners and other activists called for protest marches in Pamplona and Barcelona later on Thursday and in Madrid on Friday.
In Barcelona, hundreds of people gathered in the city centre chanting “If you mess with one, you mess with all of us” and called the justice system patriarchal.
Marches after April’s verdict brought tens of thousands of protesters into the streets demanding a harsher sentence.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/265150368993ae8e331f671abbae6c8a
