MADRID — Spain’s Supreme Court on Friday sentenced five men to 15 years in prison for raping a woman during the running of the bulls festival in the city of Pamplona three years ago, in a case that has been seen as a landmark for women’s rights in the country.

The decision overruled the verdicts of lower courts that had found the men guilty of the lesser charge of sexual abuse. That initial ruling, which included nine-year prison sentences for each of the men, led to mass protests and a debate in Spain over whether the judiciary was biased against women in cases of sexual assault.

The victim “at no point consented to the sexual acts carried out by the accused,” the Supreme Court said in Friday’s ruling. The men had sought to present the victim as a consenting sexual partner who suffered no lasting damage from the assault.

The court said that the woman, who was 18 at the time, had adopted “an attitude of submission” only because she was intimidated and because she could not escape from her attackers.