Protest over judge’s comment that rape ‘only lasted 11 minutes’

HUNDREDS of protestors took to the streets in Switzerland at the weekend after a court reduced the sentence of a convicted rapist because the rape “only lasted 11 minutes”.

Comments by the presiding judge that the victim was “playing with fire” in the lead-up to her attack have provoked public fury.

Two Portuguese men were convicted of the rape of the 33-year-old woman in the entrance to her apartment building in Basel last year.

But an appeal court last week shortened the sentence of one of the men from four years and three months to three years on the grounds he was only at “moderate fault” under Swiss law.

The 32-year-old rapist, who has not been named under local privacy laws, is to be released in a few days as he only has to serve half the sentence under Swiss law.

Announcing the decision by a panel of three judges, Justice Liselotte Henz said the rape was “relatively short” and the victim had not suffered permanent injury.

She appeared to suggest the “signals sent to the men” by the victim had contributed to the attack – an apparent reference to the woman’s behaviour in a club where they met.

Some 500 protestors took to the streets in Basel on Sunday carrying placards reading “11 minutes is 11 minutes too many” and “There is no such thing as a short rape”.

A second man convicted of the same rape is to be sentenced by a juvenile court as he was a minor at the time.

Neither the victim nor the perpetrators have been named under Swiss privacy laws.