“What is happening with the law in Murcia? And with the businessmen and the judges?”, asked aloud one of the demonstrators who attended a new demonstration called this Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. by feminist groups in front of the Palace of Justice in Murcia to denounce the sentence of the network of corruption of minors for which both the rapists of the adolescents aged 14 to 17, as well as the pimps who looked for them in schools or light discos.
A decade has passed and the undue delay in the case has reduced the sentences by up to two degrees, which has meant that the maximum sentence for each individual crime of these seven convicted businessmen is less than seven months in prison.
“Pimps go to jail!”, “Don’t touch girls!” and “Shame!” were some of the slogans chanted by the more than one hundred people gathered in a circle in front of the Provincial Court of Murcia.
Ten years ago, the ‘baúl operation’ arrested up to 29 men between 30 and 86 years old. Finally, seven of them were sentenced “independently and not as a network of pimps,” they denounced during the reading of the manifesto. On Sunday, October 6 at 8:00 p.m. there is a new call for a demonstration in front of the Palace of Justice in Murcia.
Facing CROEM
The gathering turned into a demonstration along the main artery of the Murcian capital, Gran Vía, ending at the door of the Business Confederation of the Region of Murcia (CROEM) before the astonished gaze of the Police, who began to ask for identification from the demonstrators. There the names of the seven condemned businessmen were read out loud to the cry of “Guillotine!”
The Regional Prosecutor’s Office will convene a meeting of prosecutors in early October to decide whether to request imprisonment for “some or all” of those convicted of the child pedophilia network, prior to the hearing of this trial that will take place on October 7 and 8, when the final decision on this matter will be adopted.
In any case, the decision taken at the meeting of prosecutors is not binding on the judge, who will have the final say on whether the attackers and members of the network will ultimately go to jail.
Two criteria are usually taken into account when deciding whether or not a convicted person should go to prison: on the one hand, that the individual is reintegrated and, on the other, that the events continue to have a negative impact on the victim.
“We don’t have high hopes in the short term because we know that it is a final sentence that cannot be reversed, but we hope that at this final hearing some of these sentences can be adjusted by observing what is happening on the street,” said Marta Latorre, spokesperson for the Fuste group, while holding one of the banners.
“This type of ruling cannot continue to be made”
“We also find it positive that the Chief Prosecutor of the Region of Murcia (José Luis Díaz Manzanera) opened the judicial process with a very clear allusion to this case, which is not just a short-term issue, but also a warning that these agreements of conformity cannot continue to be produced for this type of process, so that mitigating factors such as undue delay cannot be applied in cases as sensitive as those of sexual exploitation.”
“The sentence is manifestly unfair and the public does not understand it. It is a call to stop this type of sentence from happening,” concluded this professor from the University of Murcia (UMU).
Ramona López, a member of the Regional Forum for Feminist Politics, said that “the sentence is a disgrace and an absurdity for Murcian society. These men cannot be released by paying a fine of 500 or 1,000 euros to the victims, poor children who cannot even go out on the street or recognise themselves. Mothers have to hide from them that these men are being released. Then it will be them or others like them who will continue to prostitute minors and rape.”
“It seems difficult to change the agreement that was reached, but at least the Prosecutor’s Office is willing to do so.”
The representation of these minors, who were not charged with a private offence, depended entirely on the Public Prosecutor’s Office. “They never told us that we had to find a lawyer,” Juana (fictitious name), the mother of one of the victims, told this newspaper. According to the mother, the young woman is still unaware that a plea agreement had been reached and its content. She does not know that her rapists will not go to prison: “I don’t want her to find out. It was very difficult for me to get her to get up and go out on the street. If she had to relive all this, she would break down.”
“It’s a bargain, they’ll be out on the street and nothing will happen to them”
Juana has denounced that the impunity of the case will encourage other child exploiters to continue with their activity: “They have seen that it is a bargain to join a businessman, that they will be out on the street and nothing will happen to them. I am sure that they have continued to act and will act again.” The woman insists that “there will be more victims.” “I do not wish this on any mother.”
In this case of the child exploitation network, the mitigating factor of highly qualified undue delay was applied, which meant that sentences that initially ranged from 24 to 56 years in prison ended up being five months to two years.
The regional prosecutor, José Luis Manzanera, stated at the opening of the judicial proceedings that the passage of time cannot lead to the extinction, “not even in part, of culpability, unless the statute of limitations for the crime is met. Neither organisational deficiencies nor excessive workload can justify, in the eyes of the injured party or victim, an undue delay.”
At the same time, Manzanera denounced “a permanent lack of personal resources” in the justice system. Let us remember that according to the General Council of the JudiciaryThe average duration of proceedings in the Provincial Court of Murcia is 5.7 months, when the national average is 2.8.
In order to limit the agreements, the prosecutor recalls that a “legal reform” would be necessary: “A reform of Law 4/15, of April 27, which regulates the status of the victim of crime, is necessary to better protect the most vulnerable, to limit in these cases the conformities and reductions of sentences, and to require that victims be given a hearing.” The Attorney General’s Office is preparing a circular on victims “which will surely help to better deal with this issue.”
Sources from the defense in the case of the girls trafficked in a network of minors have stated to this newspaper that “when an agreement is reached with the prosecutor, an agreement is reached on all terms, including the suspension.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
