Brussels, 15/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU law does not preclude a mandatory injunction to stay away being adopted in all cases of domestic violence, even if the victim wishes to re-establish cohabitation with the offender. Such, in substance, is the content of a ruling pronounced on Thursday 15 September by the Court of Justice of the European Union, in Joint Cases C-483/09 and C-1/10.
Two men, Gueye and Salmerón Sánchez, were convicted of mistreating their respective partners. Among other penalties imposed, they were prohibited from approaching their victims or having contact with them for periods of 17 and 16 months respectively. Shortly after their conviction, Gueye and Salmerón Sánchez resumed cohabitation with their respective partners on the initiative of those partners. Due to their failure to comply with the injunction to stay away imposed on them, they were apprehended and convicted. Both brought appeals against their convictions before the Audiencia Provincial de Tarragona (provincial court, Tarragona, Spain). Supported by their partners, the two offenders claimed that to resume living together with the freely given consent of their partners does not constitute a crime of failure to comply with an injunction to stay away. The Court concludes that the framework decision does not preclude the mandatory imposition of an injunction to stay away for a minimum period, provided for by the criminal law of a member state, on persons who commit crimes of violence within the family, even when the victims of those crimes oppose the application of such a penalty. (LC/transl.jl)