Supreme Tribunal of Spain (Tribunal Supremo), Section II, No. 939/2013, 16 December 2013

Recourse against conviction for female genital mutilations, victim the minor daughter of the defendant. Evaluation of the error about the criminal law.

Art. 149.2 Spanish criminal code
Art. 14 Spanish criminal code

There exists an unavoidable (and not merely avoidable) error about the criminal law incriminating female genital mutilation when the context in which the offender lives does not favor the access to a means or system of information capable of making him or her aware of the illegality of the practice.

(The court of second and last instance overturned the conviction of a Senegalese citizen, who had subjected her minor daughter to a female genital mutilation in her country of origin, before emigrating to Spain, because of cultural and religious traditions present in the rural areas where she lived. The overturning was based on the lack of evidence that the offence had been committed by the defendant, but the Supreme Court also upheld the plea of unavoidable ignorance of the criminal law.)