Court uses Bible to justify woman’s assault

Judges in Portugal referenced the Bible and a 19th century law in a ruling that allowed an ex-husband to escape jail time for the vicious beating of his former wife.

“These references are merely intended to emphasize that society has always strongly condemned adultery by a woman and therefore sees the violence by a betrayed, vexed and humiliated man with some understanding,” the judges wrote.

The sentence has stunned women’s rights activists, legal experts and even religious authorities who saw it as an attempt to justify domestic violence.

The court heard that about three years ago, a married woman began seeing another man. After two months, the woman wanted to end the affair. In response, her former lover told her husband that she had been unfaithful, according to Portuguese media outlets. The couple divorced. But the two men, both enraged, worked together to plan an attack on the woman.

In June 2015, the former paramour kidnapped the woman and held her down while the ex-husband beat her viciously with a nailspiked club, leaving bruises and lashes all over her body.

The ex-husband was later given a 15-month suspended sentence and a fine of about US$2,000, according to The Associated Press. A prosecutor thought he deserved a harsher sentence, and asked an appeals court in Porto, Portugal’s second largest city, for prison time of three years and six months.

But the appeals judges decided against it. The judges felt it was somewhat understandable that a husband in a “depressive state” would act out against a wife who had betrayed him.

Judges Neto de Moura and Maria Luísa Abrantes wrote, “Now, adultery by a woman is a very serious attack on a man’s honour and dignity. Societies exist where the adulterous woman is stoned to death. In the Bible, we can read that the adulterous woman should be punished with death.”

The judges cited a criminal law from 1886 that called for merely a symbolic penalty against a husband who, finding his wife committing adultery, killed her.

UMAR, the Women’s Union for Alternative and Response, has called for a protest rally on Friday in downtown Lisbon in response to the ruling. In a statement, the group said the verdict was “perplexing,” “revolting” and violated the rights, freedoms and “dignity” of the individual.

The Rev. Manuel Barbosa, secretary of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, told the religious news agency Ecclesia that the judges incorrectly referred to scriptures in their ruling. He said no one should “justify any kind of violence, in this case domestic violence, even in the case of adultery.”