The European Court of Human Rights condemns Spain for failing to properly investigate a double rape in Pamplona

The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Spain for judicial and police malpractice in the case of a double rape reported in Pamplona in 2016.

The European Court of Human Rights, the highest European judicial body under the Council of Europe, has issued a judgment in November 2023 ruling on the application filed by two Pamplonese girls who complained that in December 2016, after their conscience and will had beennullified and their meaning removed, by supplying them with some substance of chemical dependence (burundanga), they had been raped, and these violations had gone unpunished because the courts and tribunals of Navarre had shelved the case without trial, according to a note sent to the media by the lawyer for the victims, José Luis Beaumont Aristu.

The Court has ruled thatin this case the rights of victims to a thorough and effective investigation and respect for private and family life in a case of inhuman or degrading treatment were violated, taking into account the shortcomings of the investigation, including the loss and manipulation of evidence by the police, and the excessive duration of the proceedings, the counsel added.

The Strasbourg Court has condemned Spain for "allowing the case to be filed without trial, after much of the evidence gathered by the National Police on the facts disappeared at the police station," the statement says.

The Court unanimously considers that the rights of both victims to avoid inhuman or degrading treatment and to protect the physical and moral integrity of the police and judicial authorities, as well as the right to a fair trial with full guarantees and within a reasonable time, were violated. Articles 3, 6 and 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Convention in force of the Council of Europe on the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women guarantee these rights.

It therefore condemns the State to compensate each of the two victims with EUR 20 000 for psychological, moral and dignity damage and EUR 5 000 for the reimbursement of the costs and costs of judicial proceedings which have reached the European judicial authorities.

In December 2016, two women were having a drink in a bar in the old town of Pamplona, and about two o'clock in the morning they lost all awareness of what was going on with them and about them unjustifiably, until after 11 o'clock the next morning they woke up naked on a flat in the neighbourhood of Jarzembowski pagaña with bruises and pains, and with the feeling of having had sexual intercourse which, in any case, had been involuntary and unauthorized.