ES — Asturias. “Gender-based violence is a crime committed by a man on a woman with whom he has had a relationship. … My professional criterion is that you cannot apply gender violence legislation because you have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria,” Íñigo Urien Azpitarte, Special Lawyer for Violence on Women of the Vizcaya Bar Association, said about the case of a now 50-year-old client accused by his wife of psychological abuse, which she says had driven her to file for divorce.

“My client is a woman from birth even though her genitals were male, so the law cannot be applied as if she were a man when the supposed facts were committed,” the lawyer, a pro-nuclear family and anti-abortion advocate, stated.

Iñigo Urien Azpitarte, a lawyer, is defending a firefighter who is accused of psychological abuse against his wife. Urien Azpitarte said the ‘Gender Violence’ law does not apply to his client, as being ‘transgender’ means that his client has always been female, despite being born with male genitalia.

The client, who is male, began identifying as a woman during the divorce proceedings, and received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. He works as a firefighter, while the woman who is divorcing him holds an administrative position. The embattled pair share two children. The case has been in litigation for over nine years.

“The law speaks of man’s violence against women, and he was not a man,” Mr Urien Azpitarte remarked about Constitutional Act 1/2004 of 28 December, on Integrated Protection Measures against Gender Violence, a Criminal Code enacted in Spain that established a framework addressing violence committed by a man against his female intimate partner. The 2004 Act, which had been fought for by Spanish women associations since 1993, brings harsher penalties against an abuser than against a perpetrator of an assault that is not deemed gender-based violence.

“We are no longer facing an alleged perpetrator but the alleged psychological violence perpetrated by a woman against another woman.” He demands that his client not be registered as an ‘abuser.’ The allegations in this case should simply be “aggression, with less harsh penalties,” the lawyer said.

“My client already has a new name and it is on his ID. I think he cannot be judged for gender-based violence. … He has already been granted the name change in the registry after undergoing hormonal treatment, prior to surgical intervention.”

The woman had filed several complaints against her husband for psychological abuse during the marriage, including insults and vexations.

Mr Urien Azpitarte vows that he is willing “to take the case to Strasbourg if necessary.” Strasbourg Court is the European Court of Human Rights, which is located in Strasbourg, France.

The case, apparently unprecedented in Spain, has sparked debate in lawyers’ forums.

Read more on this story Un acusado de violencia de género se cambia de sexo durante el proceso judicial

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Íñigo Urien Azpitarte , the lawyer who takes the case of the firefighter who changed sex after being involved in a trial for gender-based violence, was a candidate for the 2014 European elections by the Family and Life party, whose ideology is very close to that of Become a Hear association , with whom he has also collaborated and given talks on the website of this association that became famous with his bus that talked about vulvas and penises .