The law of 'only yes is yes' has led to a 32 percent reduction in sentences, according to the CGPJ

Increases to 978 the reductions in sentences and to 104 the releases computed until March 31

MADRID, 14 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has indicated this Friday that 32% of the sentences reviewed in application of the so-called 'law of only yes is yes' has led to reductions under the rule that came into force on 7 October, according to data collected up to March 31 by the Supreme Court, the National Court, the Superior Courts of Justice (TSJ) and the provincial courts.

This has been reported by the governing body of the judges when updating its official count of revisions, reductions and releases carried out as a result of the Organic Law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom. According to the data provided, there are already 978 sentence reductions and 104 releases, which adds up to 35 new reductions and a new release compared to the data that Council sources advanced to Europa Press last Wednesday.

In the breakdown of the data collected, it appears that the Supreme Court has applied 15 sentence reductions, while the National Court has issued one. The provincial courts, for their part, have agreed to 880 downward modifications and the TSJ have signed 82 reductions.

Thus, 40.5% of the Supreme Court reviews have involved a sentence reduction, according to information provided by the governing body of judges. In the National Court the percentage of reductions has been 14.3%.

Regarding the TSJ the percentage has reached 39.5% and in the provincial hearings 31.6%. Thus, in total sentences have been modified downward in 32% of cases, according to the figure handled by the CGPJ.

Regarding sentence reviews, it is clear that the provincial hearings have carried out 1,967; the TSJ, 86; the Supreme, 37; and the National Court 7.

When reviewing the data by provincial hearings, in Madrid there have been 362 reviews in Madrid, 118 reductions and 16 releases. There are 47 reductions more than the reductions registered in the first count of the CGPJ and 8 more releases.

The list of reductions also includes Alicante with 53 sentence reductions; Cádiz with 48; Valencia and the Balearic Islands with 46; Vizcaya with 42 and Barcelona with 40.

In the Superior Courts of Justice, the Community of Madrid also stands out with 26 downward modifications. They are followed by Andalusia and the Balearic Islands with 6; Galicia with 5; Aragon, Asturias, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community, Murcia, Navarra and the Basque Country with 4.

In line, the Council has also presented a breakdown of the release data: 99 in the provincial hearings and 5 in the TSJ. None have been registered either in the Supreme Court or in the National Court.

In addition to the 16 releases agreed by the Madrid Court, there are 8 in Cádiz; and 6 in Vizcaya, Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, as the provinces in which the most prison releases have been issued.

From the CGPJ they have stressed that the data that appear in the table of provincial hearings correspond "exclusively" to sentence reviews and "do not include those instance sentences handed down in relation to events that occurred before the entry into force" of the law in which has been applied -and not the norm in force on the date of the facts prosecuted- because it is considered more favorable for the accused. In line, he has indicated that the data relating to the Supreme Court correspond to resolutions issued in appeals.

In addition, it has explained that in order to obtain the total data, it has deduced the revisions of the sentence that the provincial courts had communicated, when these have been dismissed by the Supreme Court on appeal; likewise, he has added those revisions that, initially denied by the provincial courts, have finally been estimated by the Supreme Court on appeal.

As the Council has specified, the data offered "does not include the revisions of the sentence that the Criminal Courts, competent to prosecute crimes against sexual freedom, punishable by up to five years in prison, may have processed, given the difficulty of collecting this information from single-member bodies".

This Friday is the first official update carried out by the CGPJ since last March 2 it reported that there were 721 reductions and 74 releases throughout Spain as of March 1 due to the revisions carried out by the Organic Law of Integral Guarantee of Sexual Freedom.

On that occasion, the Council warned that it had not been able to collect data from all judicial bodies, so it lacked a "global" figure. In any case, he reported that his Permanent Commission had agreed in their conclave that the information would be "periodically updated and made public."

On the sidelines, it is expected that the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court will hold a monographic plenary session between June 6 and 7 to set criteria on the reviews carried out by the sentencing courts due to the criminal reform.

It will be the first time that the high court enters to analyze whether the courts have properly applied the Organic Law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom in their sentence reviews. The magistrates will carry out this study with the objective of not only unifying criteria but also establishing doctrine, and because it already accumulates more than 20 appeals against review orders.