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VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY 4 March 2021
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20 Adar 5781
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Issue No.1200
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@JewishNewsUK
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Get refusal clarified as a criminal offence Defiant husbands now more likely to face jail
Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90
by Ellie Jacobs @Ellieljacobs
A man signs a petition for women’s divorce rights outside a Jerusalem court
Husbands who refuse their wives a religious divorce are more likely to be prosecuted following “momentous” changes to the government’s Domestic Abuse Bill. A man who refuses a get will now be clearly recognised as exerting controlling and coercive behaviour, which is listed as a criminal offence under the Serious Crime Act of 2015. If found guilty, an offender could face up to five years in jail. While get refusal could previously have been considered a criminal offence
under the 2015 Act, experts say the law was ambiguous and had yet to be fully tested in court. New amendments to the Act, combined with the Domestic Abuse Bill, have now eradicated any doubt. Experts say that by adding to and clarifying existing legislation it will now be easier to take action against perpetrators. Joanne Greenaway, former get case director at the London Beth Din, said: “This tightening of the definition will bring clarity to enable more people to use this avenue with confidence and more quickly move on with their lives.” Greenaway hopes that through “the new Domestic Abuse Bill and working together with the Batei Din who look
after the Get cases, we see additional protections for these victims of abuse”. Baroness Altmann, who is part of a cross-party group of Jewish peers that has been working to implement this in law, told Jewish News that this was a “momentous development in our quest to protect British people whose partners refuse to give them the get. We have long wanted to see this issue addressed for the women affected and try and free them so they can get on with their lives”. She added: “Finally, a Jewish wife can get support to stand up and say this is not OK.” Previously, there were question marks over whether an offence could be
coercive if a couple was not cohabiting in an “intimate relationship”. In some cases of get refusal, victims are no longer living with their partner and may have divorced under secular law. The ambiguities have meant that a husband can argue that as he is longer living with with his wife, his behaviour cannot be deemed coercive. Greenaway said: “Thanks to the Serious Crime Act 2015, two prosecutions have already been brought which have led to the freeing of women in very difficult circumstances of get refusal. This was despite uncertainty as to whether the provisions related to
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