The court ruled evidence sufficient for conviction on rape and injuries charges from October 2024 nightclub
assault. It found the 4-year term proportionate after rejecting both appeals.
Key Points
- Superior Court rejected appeals from defense (seeking acquittal) and prosecution (seeking 8+ years).
- Incident: French tourist raped Spanish tourist in Andorra la Vella nightclub bathroom in Oct 2024; consensual act turned non-consensual despite her pleas to stop.
- Sentence: 4 years prison (16 months to serve, already completed), €1,000 fine, €6,000 damages, 10-year ban, 20-year expulsion.
- Court confirmed major sexual aggression (rape) and minor intentional injuries based on consistent evidence.
Andorra's Superior Court Upholds Four-Year Sentence for French Tourist in Nightclub Rape Case
Superior Court rejects appeals from both defence and prosecution, affirming original ruling
Andorra's Tribunal Superior confirmed on Friday a four-year prison sentence against a French tourist convicted of raping a young Spanish tourist in the bathrooms of a nightclub in Andorra la Vella in October 2024.
The court dismissed appeals from both the defence, which sought acquittal, and the prosecution, which argued for nullifying the first-instance verdict and increasing the penalty to eight years and two months. The ruling fully upholds the Tribunal de Corts decision, which found that an initially consensual sexual encounter turned non-consensual when the victim repeatedly asked the man to stop due to pain, but he continued with penetration despite her explicit opposition.
The sentence includes four years in prison, with 16 months to be served—time the convict has already completed in pre-trial detention. Additional penalties comprise a €1,000 fine, €6,000 in moral damages to the victim, a 10-year communication ban, and a 20-year expulsion from the Principality.
The court also recognised a major offence of sexual aggression constituting rape, alongside a minor offence of intentional injuries requiring medical treatment, with evidence deemed sufficient and proportionate to the upheld penalty.
During the June appeal hearing, the defence questioned the proof's adequacy to overcome the presumption of innocence and challenged the trial evidence assessment. Prosecutors, meanwhile, contended the original sentence lacked sufficient justification for the penalty and pressed for the initially requested term.
The decision endorses the first-instance evaluation of evidence, including injuries consistent with the victim's account. Authorities have provided no further details on the nightclub's identity or additional proceedings.
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