Portuguese court draws outrage for quoting Bible to justify light sentence for man who assaulted ex-wife

A court in Portugal has angered women's rights groups for quoting the Bible and a 19th-century law to justify a suspended sentence for a man who assaulted his ex-wife with a spiked bat over allegations of adultery.

The man was given a 15-month suspended sentence and a $2,000 fine for attacking his ex-wife in the street in 2015, The Associated Press reported. The attack has left the woman covered in cuts in bruises, as the suspect had beaten her with a bat spiked with nails.

Prosecutors had complained that the sentence was too lenient and asked for a prison sentence of three years and six months. However, the judges rejected the request and expressed "some understanding" for the attacker, saying a woman's adultery is "a very serious offence against a man's honour and dignity."

The judges at the appeals court in Porto, Portugal's second-largest city, noted that the Bible mandates the punishment of death for an adulterous woman, and also cited an 1886 Portuguese law that handed down symbolic sentences to men who killed their wives for suspected adultery.

In their ruling, which became public this week, the judges noted that they were making reference to the Bible as well as an old law "to stress that a woman's adultery amounts to conduct which society has always condemned and condemned very strongly."

A report from a local news outlet has indicated that the victim of the assault was indeed having a brief affair. When she decided to end the affair, the other man told her husband about the relationship and both men began directing threats against the woman, according to NPR, citing Portuguese news website Esquerda. The former sexual partner had reportedly kidnapped the woman, while her husband, who had since divorced her, violently beat her.

Several rights groups had spoken out against the ruling, including the UMAR Women's Union for Alternative and Response, which described it as "inadmissible" because it legitimized violence against women and blamed the victim. The group further noted that the separation of powers in Portugal means that there is no place for the Bible in courtrooms.

"Evoking the Bible does not combine with the rule of law in our country and discredits the judicial norms," the group said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.

A protest rally in downtown Lisbon has been planned for Friday by UMAR and the feminist movement Por Todas Nos (For all of Us Women), and protests were also called in Porto under the slogan "Male chauvinism is not justice, but crime."