Woman sentenced to a year in prison for sharing a conversation on WhatsApp

The Provincial Court of Cuenca has sentenced a woman to one year in prison and compensation of 500 euro for recording without permission a conversation between her husband and their children and disseminating it in a WhatsApp group.

It also confirms the sentence imposed in the first instance by Criminal Court No. 2 of Cuenca for a fine of 1,800 euro plus payment of costs.

“Despite the fact that the ruling expressly declared the dissemination of the messages and the condition of victims of two minors as proven facts, it was decided not to apply the aggravated types of crime,” says the husband’s lawyer, José Luis Rodríguez García. “Only she was convicted of the crime of discovery and disclosure of secrets contained in article 197.1 of the Penal Code, without compensation of any kind,” he adds.

For this reason, the husband, who was in the process of separating from his wife, appealed the sentence before the Provincial Court requesting that the sentence imposed be aggravated by applying aggravated types 3 and 5 of said article.

As explained by the lawyer, section 3 says that a prison sentence of two to five years will be imposed if the data or facts discovered or the images captured are disseminated, revealed or transferred to third parties. Section 5 indicates that when the victim is a minor or a person with a disability in need of special protection, the penalties provided for in the upper half will be imposed, that is, from nine months to one year.

“The appeal judgment has also been quite lukewarm, since it only revokes the ruling on civil liability,” continues the lawyer. For this reason, they have appealed in cassation before the Supreme Court. “The compensation clearly violates the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, which determines that in the event of a violation of a fundamental right, symbolic compensation cannot be set,” he denounced.

Rodríguez García shows his surprise at the impunity that exists when it comes to recording other people’s conversations. “Just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it doesn’t constitute a crime.”

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