The Superior Court of Justice of Navarra (TSJN) has reduced by one year – from 15 to 14 years – the prison sentence imposed by the Supreme Court on Ángel Boza, one of the five members of La Manada convicted of the group rape of the Sanfermines of 2016, in application of the law of only yes means yes, as reported by the Judiciary in a statement.
The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJN maintains that the sentence should be reduced, since the Supreme Court itself indicated in its ruling that it imposed a sentence of 15 years, “close” or “close” to the legal minimum, minimums that the aforementioned law lowered “significantly”. Thus, he sees it as “reasonable, in accordance with the law, respectful of the basic legal rules for determining the sentence and adapted to the criteria of proportionality” to leave the sentence at 14 years, although the court’s resolution has a dissenting vote that advocates for rejecting the request for sentence reduction.
La Manada’s lawyer, Agustín Becerra, requested in November of last year the review of Ángel Boza’s sentence. “I requested that it be reduced by one year and three months and in the end they have reduced it by one year,” the lawyer explains to this newspaper. Boza was the only one of the five members of the group who could benefit from the yes is yes law, because he was only convicted for the rape they committed on July 6, 2016 in Pamplona. In the case of the other four members of the group, the accumulation of sentences exceeds or borders on 20 years in prison, due to the fact that the crimes of sexual assault in the Sanfermines and the recording of these events are added to those of sexual abuse in Pozoblanco (Córdoba) against another young woman, perpetrated two months before and in which the young man from Seville did not participate.
The Provincial Court rejected the review requested by the convicted person in February, but the magistrates, with the opposition of all the accusations – the prosecutor, the complainant, the Government of Navarra and the Pamplona City Council -, this time admit the appeal of the convicted person against the decision of the Court. The defense requested that the 15-year sentence be reduced to 13 years and 9 months.
As the court recalls, the yes is yes law reduced the minimum sentence for sexual assault, which went from 14 years, 3 months and 1 day to 13 years. Therefore, he understands that, since the Supreme Court ordered a sentence “close” to the legal minimum, the sentence must be reduced. “The 15 years of prison imposed are two years above the possible minimum that, effectively, are within the possible penological arc, but which, in the opinion of the majority of this Chamber, no longer meets the parameter set by the Supreme Court in its sentence when it described the sentence imposed as “very close to the legal minimum”, or as “a sentence higher than the legally provided minimum, although very close to it”, argue the judges Joaquín Galve Sauras, president of the TSJN and speaker of the same, and Francisco Javier Fernández Urzainqui. The third member of the Chamber, Judge Esther Erice Martínez, has formulated a dissenting opinion in which she advocates dismissing the review of the sentence.
In their resolution, the two magistrates consider that the reform of the law is favorable to the prisoner by having significantly lowered the legal minimum and, therefore, they consider it “reasonable and in accordance with the law” to leave the sentence at 14 years, given that the maximum legal is 18. “Maintaining the 15-year sentence imposed in the sentence would no longer maintain the proximity or closeness to the legal minimum of the expected penological arc, which the sentencing Chamber (the Supreme Court) considered and set as a parameter or reference in their individualization,” they say. Furthermore, they point out that the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence establishes that sentences should be reduced even when they are within the applicable range contemplated by the new law.
The resolution of the TSJN has the dissenting vote of Judge Erice, who points out that, “according to what was stated by the Supreme Court, the impossible penalty resulting from the review operation cannot be determined based on mere criteria of arithmetical proportionality”, but rather that “all concurrent elements” must be taken into account, including, in particular, “the seriousness of the facts.” Furthermore, he understands that not even the criterion of arithmetic proportionality “is appropriate”, since even with the new penal range – from 13 years to 18 -, “the sentence of 15 years in prison continues to be ‘a sentence higher than the legally provided minimum.’ , although very close to it’”, as the Supreme Court pointed out at the time.
Boza, 32 years old, was the youngest of the five members of La Manada. In August 2018, when he was on provisional release for the Sanfermines sexual assault, he was arrested after stealing 200 euro sunglasses from a shopping center in the center of Seville and trying to flee in his car, after hitting one of the security guards who tried to stop him with his rearview mirror. The young man went to prison and was convicted of a minor crime of theft and another minor crime of injuries, after asking for forgiveness at trial and declaring that what he had done was “bullshit.” At that time, Boza also had another hearing pending in San Sebastián for having stolen other sunglasses on the eve of the start of the Pamplona festivities in which he was part of the group rape, for which he was convicted, along with two others. his companions -José Ángel Prenda and Antonio Manuel Guerrero-, who also participated in the theft, to a fine of 270 euros.
The young man is serving his sentence in the Albolote prison in Granada.
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