A loophole in a rape law passed last year in Spain led to more than 970 sexual assault offenders having their sentences reduced: report

• Spain passed a new sexual assault law in October 2022 that expanded the definition of rape.
• The law lowered the minimum prison sentence for sexual assault committed without aggression, per Politico.

A loophole in a sexual violence law passed in Spain last year allowed over 978 sexual assault offenders to have their sentence reduced or ended early.

The country's General Council of the Judiciary announced on April 14 that since the "Only Yes Is Yes" law was passed in October of 2022, 978 prisoners had their sentences reduced. As of March 31, 104 of those prisoners had been released early.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez apologized for the impact of the law, Reuters reported.

"Some of these releases or reviews are not final, they can still be appealed. But in any case, there has been an undesired effect that we have to resolve," Sanchez said in an interview with a local paper.

"If we have to apologize to the victims, I apologize to the victims."

The "Only Yes Is Yes" law was prompted by the 2016 "wolf pack" case, where five men brutally gang raped an 18-year-old woman in Pamplona during the annual bulls' festival San Fermín.

The local court initially only sentenced the five men dubbed the "wolf pack" after their WhatsApp group chat for the lesser charge of committing sexual abuse, Forbes reported. They were given a nine-year sentence.

In June 2019, Spain's Supreme Court ruled that the men committed rape, and increased their sentence to 15 years.

The "Only Yes Is Yes" law then made it so that all non-consensual sex was defined as rape. Prosecutors had previously only been able to convict someone of rape if they could prove that they used violence and intimidation while committing the crime. That meant that in many cases, offenders would be charged with sexual abuse, a lesser charge, Politico reported.

The BBC reported that Spain's criminal code allows sentences to be retroactively applied to already convicted criminals. The new law lowered the minimum sentence for sexual assault cases where there is no aggression, allowing lawyers to petition to reduce the sentences of those convicted.

A lawyer for one of the five men convicted in the wolf-pack rape also told the BBC he plans to use the law to reduce his client's sentence.