"Spain's Supreme Court on Friday ruled that five men who attacked a teenager at a bull-running festival were guilty of rape not the lesser crime of sexual abuse, concluding a case that sparked mass protests across Spain over chauvinism and sexual abuse.
The Supreme Court's ruling, hailed by women's' rights groups and by the government, accepted that the victim's ordeal met the requirement in Spanish law that the plaintiff in a rape case must present evidence of intimidation or specific violence.
Lawyers for the woman, who was 18 when she was gang-raped in a doorway early in the morning at the 2016 San Fermin festival by the five men who called themselves the 'Wolf Pack,' argued that shock and fear had stopped her from fighting them.
The men had originally been convicted by a lower court of sexual abuse. Outrage at that verdict helped put the treatment of women at the heart of the public debate in Spain, including during campaigning for April's election, and prompted a government promise to change the law.
The case attracted international attention in the wake of the global #MeToo movement that has highlighted sexual abuse and mistreatment of women."
