Spanish prosecutor to appeal verdict in gang rape case, protests persist

By Sonya Dowsett MADRID (Reuters) - State prosecutors said on Friday they would appeal a ruling that cleared five men of the gang rape of a teenager at a bull-running festival two years ago, a verdict that has prompted anguished soul-searching and angry protests across Spain. The men, who had recorded video of the attack on their mobile phones and laughed about the incident afterwards on a Whatsapp group, were convicted with the lesser crime of sexual abuse and sentenced to nine years in jail. Shaken by the scale of protests against the court ruling, the Spanish government said on Friday it would consider revamping the criminal code to ensure that sex crimes were punished more harshly.

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