Strong hand on sexual abuse in the barracks. The first sergeant who touched a subordinate while she was unconscious must answer before the military judge for an alleged crime of sexual abuse, punishable by up to five years in prison, after the robed prosecutor has concluded his investigation and filed a complaint. For his part, the Army Chief of Staff has opened a file to provisionally suspend the non-commissioned officer from his duties as the alleged perpetrator of a very serious disciplinary offense.

The events that are the object of the investigation took place on October 16 at the Troop Training Center (Cefot) number 1 in Cáceres, when the military officer fainted and the non-commissioned officer, under the pretext of reviving her, began to touch her of a non-sexual nature. spoiled. Several soldiers who were present and realized what the command was doing to their companion reproached him for his conduct and tried to stop him, but he violently revolted against them, according to witnesses.

The protocol against sexual harassment in the Armed Forces was immediately launched, which, among other measures, provides for the removal of the accused from the victim and the provision of psychological assistance to the latter, according to military sources. However, the removal was not necessary as the military was one of the 1,300 soldiers who had joined the center last May and concluded their training period on October 26. What has been done is to remove the first sergeant – who is part of the center’s staff of instructors – from the new battalion of 1,300 students that joined in early November.

For his part, the Chief of the Army Staff, General Amador Enseñat, has ordered the initiation of procedures to suspend the noncommissioned officer for a maximum period of six months. The law allows the head of the Army to adopt this measure while a disciplinary file is being processed for a very serious offense.

The file, however, will have to be paralyzed as soon as the territorial military robed court admits the prosecution’s complaint for sexual abuse. Article 47 of the Military Penal Code punishes with penalties from six months to six years of imprisonment the “superior who treats the subordinate in a degrading, inhuman or humiliating way, or commits acts of sexual assault or abuse.” In addition, the court could impose, although it is not automatic, the penalty of loss of employment; that is to say, the expulsion of the Armed Forces.

Last June, the Supreme Military Chamber sentenced a lieutenant colonel to two years and three months in prison for abuse of authority against a military officer with the use of corporal. The sentence did not impose the accessory penalty of job loss – expulsion from the Armed Forces – although the Military Penal Code provides for the possibility of applying this punishment to those guilty of sexual and labor harassment. According to the ruling, the lieutenant colonel, then head of the Logistics Group of the Spanish Verification Unit (UVE), dedicated to controlling compliance with disarmament agreements, had the military’s mobile number because it was on the alert list of the unit and dedicated himself to sending her messages, including one in which he masturbated. When the subordinate refused his claims, he retaliated against her.