A protest against sexist sexual violence, in Pamplona, northern Spain. AP file
Madrid: Victims of rape in Spain can now demand their assailants to wear electronic tracking devices when they come out of jail.
The country’s equality minister has ordered courts across Spain to accept requests by women who want their attackers to wear tracking devices to alert them if they are nearby.
The orders especially apply to those who have been released prematurely from jail under a controversial reform of Spain’s sexual reforms, according to Telegraph.
The electronic tracking devices, which are equipped with GPS services, will be worn around one’s wrist or ankle.
Who will control the devices?
The victim will also have a device that will be paired to their assailant’s bands which will enable the former to know if the ex-convict is around or has entered an “exclusion zone” which is set 500 metres away from the victim’s location.
The electronic tracking devices worn by criminals will be monitored by Spain’s security forces who will receive alerts if an offender enters the exclusion zone.
The centre will also get alerted in case the band is taken off or stops functioning. In such a case, the police will immediately dispatch a patrol car to the victim’s location.
The new scheme comes at a when around 100 sexual offenders have had their sentences cut short in the wake of a new reform passed last year known as the “only yes means yes” law.
The equality ministry also helps that the new scheme will improve protection against women threatened by gender-based violence in Spain.
‘Yes means yes’ law
The “yes means yes” law was applied last year in response to a 2016 case where five men, known as the “Wolf Pack”, raped an 18-year-old woman at the world-famous bull-running festival.
Under the new law, all non-consensual sex was started to be counted as rape as opposed to the previous rule where rape convictions could only be secured if a prosecutor could prove that violence and intimidation had been employed.
According to VOA News, Ana Bernal, a journalist who specialises in feminist issues said, “This law has left a legal loophole. There are many victims who are scared about what could happen because the people who abused them could be let out of prison earlier. They are worried about their safety.”
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