The case of a group sex attack on a teenage woman that shocked Spain has reached the Supreme Court, where prosecutors are calling for the men’s jail terms to be doubled.
The five men known as the “wolf pack” got nine years in jail when they were cleared of gang rape but convicted of the lesser charge of sexual abuse.
Prosecutors have called on the court to upgrade the conviction to rape.
The attack prompted Spain to announce a review of its rape laws.
All five are on provisional release until the Supreme Court decides on their case. Prosecutors will need to prove that intimidation or violence was used for the sentence to be changed.
In July 2016, when the city of Pamplona was holding its traditional San Fermin bull-running festival, the 18-year-old woman was dragged into the hallway of a residential building. The five men removed her clothes and had unprotected sex with her.
Some of them filmed it on their phones. The woman’s phone was also stolen and she was found reportedly in a distraught state.
They sent the video around their WhatsApp chat group, called “La manada” (the wolf pack), and the video has since become central to the question of whether they raped the woman or sexually abused her.
A police report said she had kept her eyes closed at all times, showing a “passive or neutral” expression throughout.
In April 2018, a court in Navarra jailed the men for nine years each for sexual abuse but acquitted them of the graver charge of sexual assault, the equivalent of rape under existing Spanish law.
The ruling was based on a decision that the woman had not faced violence or intimidation, but had been abused. Two months later, the same regional court ordered the men’s provisional release pending appeal as they were not deemed a flight risk.
The verdict prompted widespread demonstrations from rights groups and politicians who were incredulous that a prolonged sexual assault involving intercourse by five men could be anything other than rape.
