A court in Navarra has rejected a request for the five convicted members of the La Manada or 'wolf pack', to return to jail while they await the result of appeal processes. The request to imprison the five men provisionally had been made by both the public prosecutor and other private prosecutions in the case.
The five men were sentenced to 9 years in prison for sexual abuse of a woman during the San Fermín bull-running festival of 2016, but were then released on June 22nd last year, on bail of 6,000 euros, until appeals in the case are heard. The fact that they were convicted of the less serious offence of sexual abuse - and not sexual aggression or rape - caused a great public outcry; and further controversy was generated when the court then allowed them to be released on bail. The five became known as the manada or 'wolf pack' as it was the name they had adopted for a Whatsapp group.
The court made its new decision to continue bail for the men by a majority of two judges to one, with the dissenting vote being that of the president of the court, who argued for the five to enter prison. This new request for them to be remanded in custody followed the Navarra High Court's confirmation of the sentence of nine years for a continued crime of sexual abuse. However, the appeal process is not yet complete, and the case is now being taken to the Spanish Supreme Court.
The main difference between the definition of the less serious crime of sexual abuse -which they were found guilty of- and those of sexual aggression and rape is the existence of violence and intimidation. The court considered that the victim's sexual liberty had been "violated without consent" but did not interpret their actions as involving violence or intimidation. However, the court did take into account as an aggravating factor the existence of oral, vaginal and anal penetration, which raised the penalty for the men from three to nine years.
The appeal will now go to Spain's Supreme Court. Should this court consider that the facts of the case constitute a sexual aggression, the sentence for the accused could be increased to 14 years, 3 months and one day.