Saturday 18 October 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Women Abusers Will
Still Go To Jail, Says Fiscal General
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Women Abusers Will Still
Go To Jail, Says Fiscal
General
Just like before, wife
abusers and men who
denigrate, humiliate and
abuse their women, can
continue to do so
without consequences.
The return to times past
follows a decision by
the Sala Constitucional
(Constitutional Court)
striking down articles
22 and 25 of the Ley
8589 de Penalización de
la Violencia Contra las
Mujeres..
The Ley de Penalización
called for a jail
sentence of 6 months to
2 years for any man who
criticized, insulted,
devalued, shamed,
ridiculed or terrorized,
among other times, in
addition to physical or
emotional abuse, any
woman who lived with.
The magistrates of the
Sala IV voted in favour
of a motion on
unconstitutionality
presented by lawyer
Marco Feoli who sought
out the rights of men,
which, according to
Feoli, went to far and
did not clearly spell
what was to be
considered "criminal
behaviour".
Following the court
decision, the country's
legal system takes a
step backwards and can
only provide "medidas
cautelares" by ordering
the man to stay away
from the women and other
measures to stop the
abuses.
Battered women will
again have to rely on
the laws of domestic
violence, which for the
most part have been
inadequate and resulted
in the creation of the
Ley de Penalización.
As Adina Castro of the
Instituto Nacional de
las Mujeres (INAMU) -
national women's
institute - the domestic
violence law only calls
for medidas cautelares
and there is no
provision for improsing
jail for wife beaters
and men who emotionally
abuse their women.
"The abusers will only
be given an order to
stay away of the woman
whom they have been
abusing and the injuries
have to be extensive
before a prison term is
given", said Castro.
The new law came into
effect in May 2007 and
according to Castro 71%
of the complaints filed
since have been for
emotional abuse and
"bad" treatement. Prior
to that, the majority of
women did not report
such abuses, preferring
to keep quiet, mostly
because there was no
confidence that the law
was on their side.
The Fiscal General de
Costa Rica (Attorney
General), Francisco
Dall`Anese, said
yesterday he is opposed
to the lifting of the
sanctions following the
court decision and said
he has ordered all
Fiscales (prosecutors)
and in the country to
continue their
investigation in the
same manner as before
and based their actions
on articles 123,124 and
125 del Código Penal
(Penal Code) when the
behaviour of the man
maintains and element of
criminality.
Dall'Anese added that
all officials of the
Ministerio Público must
comply with the
guidelines issued by the
Attorney General's
Office and
non-compliance will be
met with disciplinary
sanction.
The Fiscal General
reminded that the
directive was issued
prior to the Ley de
Penalización to deal
with abusers, issued in
August of 2005.
The directive can be
used to consider
emotional abuse as
serious injuries, a
requirement of Penal
Code to allow the
offender to be jailed.
The directive states
that the victim must not
only suffer corporal
injuries, but as well
psychological injuries
must be considered.
The Fiscal General said
its content (the
directive) is a general
instruction to law
enforcement and is used
to maintain a unified
interpretation of the
laws of the institution
and like all other
directives is binding on
all representatives of
the Ministerio Público. |
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