MADRID, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of people took to the streets in cities all over Spain on Thursday evening following the verdict of a high-profile rape trial earlier in the day.
Judges in the northern Spain's city of Pamplona ruled that five men, including a Civil Guard and a member of the Spanish military, were not guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman in the San Fermin celebrations in the city in July 2016.
Instead of the 22-year imprisonment which prosecutors had asked for rape, the five were each sentenced to 9 years each in jail for the lesser offense of "continuous sexual abuse", as well as being told to pay the victim 10,000 euros (12,103 U.S. dollars) each.
Antonio Manuel Guerrero, a Civil Guard, was also sentenced to pay the victim 900 euros for stealing her mobile phone.
The case captured headlines all over Spain as details of the attack from the group, who named themselves "La Manada" (The Wolf Pack) emerged. The group had offered to help the victim to her car, but instead took her to a darkened doorway where they forced her to perform sexual act, which they filmed on their phones.
Defense lawyers alleged the woman had consented to the acts. The prosecution argued the victim has immobile because she was intimidated and terrified of the group of five, all of whom are large, strong and heavily muscled. Prosecution lawyer Elena Sarasate also questioned why if the sex had been consensual Guerrero had stolen the victim's phone.
The sentence was greeted with anger and cries of "it's not abuse, it's rape" by hundreds of people outside of the court in Pamplona. As the afternoon progressed, protestors took to the streets in other cities such as Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao shouting slogans such as "we believe you sister".
The verdict has also been criticized by prominent politicians, with Pedro Sanchez, the leader of the Spanish Socalist Party, tweeting; "if what the 'wolf-pack' did wasn't group violence against a defenseless woman, then what do we understand by rape?"
Podemos' leader Pablo Iglesias commented that the sentence was something "we thought belonged to another time". But Spain's deputy prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, said the decision should be respected and something had to be done to stop it "happening again".
The victim's lawyer and the regional government have both announced they will appeal against the leniency of the sentence.
