Outrage in Peru: judges reject rape complaint because victim wore Red underwear ·Global Voices

A red lace underwear is the maximum seduction garment in the popular imaginary and under that argument, three Judges of Peru rejected a complaint of rape of a woman who used them and acquitted their alleged rapist, in a ruling that has outraged the countryfor the macho prejudices he holds.

The story is that of a 20 -year -old girl who goes to an appointHe would return home.

However, the appointment becomes a nightmare, because the woman denounces the man for sexual assault and the case arrives in the courts in the hot city of Ica, south of Lima.

After months of investigations, the magistrates decided to absolve the alleged aggressor for a series of arguments that for many Peruvians, legal experts and feminist organizations are source of indignation, because they clearly show how justice, instead of protecting, revictimizing and perpetuating violenceAgainst the woman.

Justice that revictimizes

"Many women and feminist organizations have caused us a lotFeminist Movement Manuela Ramos, Luz Mateo.

The fact that the Judicial Chamber has highlighted the use of that garment is the "most scandalous", but "in the entire sentence there have been a series of arguments based on prejudices, stereotypes, in machismo, which has caused a lot of outrage,"The activist said.

The psychological expertise made to the victim describes it as a submissive, dependent and unable to say a non -blunt, despite which the judges ruled that this expert opinion does not correspond to a person who wears red underwear.

"They have ruled that this expert opinion is not going and that is why they emphasize their underwear, which was a red and lace truck (underwear)," Matthew noted.

In fact, the judicial resolution states that "the maximum of experience" points out that this garment is used for sometimes intimacy, which would distort a scenario of sexual assault.

It would also distort the expert opinion that says that the woman is "shy", in the overstage that only a "daring" woman would carry that type of garment.

Open investigation to judges

Manuela Ramos is one of several organizations that viralized on social networks the motto #Perupaísdeviers to criticize the performance of magistrates Ronald Anayhuamán, Diana Jurado and Lucy Castro, who will be investigated by the Office of Control of the Magistracy (OCMA)of his controversial failure.

The archiving of the complaint was also appealed by the provincial deputy prosecutor, Carlos Guillermo Yalle, to make a new trial with due guarantees and this sentence is annulled.

For its part, the Ministry of Women expressed its "deep rejection" in the face of the magistrates' arguments and added that the eradication and sanction of violence against women can only be possible with "an impartial and conscious judiciary of their fundamental rolein the end of the eradication of rape and discrimination based on gender. ”

Repeated cases

This situation is added to other cases in which justice seems.

Thus, in last September a prosecutor decided to file an accusation of abuse against Guillermo Castrillón, director and theater teacher, to which 16 of his students accused of sexual abuse, under the argument that they were not sufficiently traumatized by the alleged attacks.

Castrillón forced his actresses and students, with whom he maintained a hierarchical relationship, to undress, groped them, introduced his penis between the buttocks or fingers in his vaginas as a “technique” of teaching.

He would also have penetrated a woman who was unconscious at home during a party and burst into the room of an apartment partner to masturbate next to her bed, nothing of which she seems to hold indications of probable crime in the eyes of a prosecutor.

At the end of October another case caught the attention and generated a stir, after a lawyer justified a sexual assault committed by five men against a woman during a meeting, pointing out that the victim "likes social life."

#Amimegustalavidasocial became a label used in social networks, such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok, under which feminist groups and women from different areas of Peruvian social life denounced the prejudices and arguments used to protect the rapists.

Mother's fault

The case of the acquittal of the alleged rapist, in addition to assuming a responsibility of the victim for his garments, also collects other faults, such as the fact that the complainant had voluntarily drunk alcohol with her aggressor and that he was of legal age.

In addition, according to Mateo, it is intended to transfer the responsibility of the crime to the woman's mother, for not having care of her daughter.

Mateo indicated that the magistrates pointed out that "the mother does not look for her daughter after 11 at night, at which time she remained to get home, and then the responsibility moves to the mother", because the judge says that "A mother's impulse is to look for her daughter when she doesn't appear. ”

"Basically, what the sentence does is justify violence, but part of this questioning that is done to the victim's testimony," said the spokeswoman for the feminist organization.

They border the 7,000 complaints for rape

The questioned actions of justice operators, as in the case of Ica, are a reason why many victims of sexual violence avoid denouncing, because they fear being prosecuted for their way of being or even dressing.

In this year of Pandemia, between January and September, Peru registered 6,893 complaints of sexual violence in the Women's Emergency Centers (CEM) of the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations, where 30 % of the victims were minors, but theFeminist organizations argue that real cases must be many more.