THOUSANDS of people have gathered in Almeria to demonstrate against Spanish Congress’s decision to vote against tougher imprisonment measures for non-egregious crimes.
An estimated 2,000 people gathered at the whale monument at the mouth of the Rambla in Almeria on Sunday, which is currently a memorial site for eight-year-old Gabriel Cruz Ramirez.
Spain’s Popular Party had proposed that the ‘reviewable permanent prison’ sentence, currently only used for outstandingly bad crimes, should be extended to possibly be awarded for a wider variety of crimes considered less serious.
But Spanish congress recently voted against the proposals, with opposing parties looking to repeal the reviewable permanent prison sentence all together; a move that has angered many in the wake of the Gabriel Cruz Ramirez case.
According to reports the debate had already been scheduled before the case emerged but many had argued that it should have been postponed due to the current public outrage surrounding the case.
However, in light of the demonstration, Almeria Mayor, Ramon Sanchez-Pacheco, was keen to distance the discussion from the Gabriel Cruz case.
He told Spanish media: “I would not like to relate it to the case of Gabriel, he has had the immense misfortune to pass on what has happened to him now, coinciding with a debate in the congress.”
