This case is a cassation appeal from a lower court judgment. The judge found the defendant guilty of attempted femicide in violation of Article 45 of the Special Comprehensive Law for a Violence-free Life for Women (Ley Especial Integral para una Vida Libre de Violencia) (“LEIV”) and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. In the underlying case, the defendant rammed the plaintiff, his ex-girlfriend, with his car against the wall twice, causing her grave injuries.
In Case No. 187-2023, the Supreme Court of Chile ruled in a landmark gender justice case concerning the murder of a transgender woman. On May 16, 2023, the Oral Criminal Court of Iquique convicted the defendant of femicide. However, on October 4, 2023, the Iquique Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, holding that the victim did not legally qualify as a woman under the femicide statute because official records still listed her as male. After remand, the trial court once again convicted the defendant of femicide.
Article 132 of the Portuguese Penal Code imposes a more severe penalty (imprisonment from 12 to 25 years) for the crime of qualified homicide (“homicídio qualificado”), if, among other special circumstances, the victim is the current or former spouse or person with whom the perpetrator has a romantic relationship, regardless of sex and gender, if the victim is pregnant or if the crime is committed due to the victim’s gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
In Judgment no. 104/2020, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice resolved a jurisdictional conflict and clarified that not every homicide of a woman constitutes femicide. The Court distinguished between femicidal violence and homicidal violence as different, though parallel, phenomena. It emphasized that treating all killings of women as femicide would undermine the specific legal protection intended for gender-based violence, which arises from patriarchal power structures and historical gender inequality.
