The developer says he has now been released but was allegedly detained and faced up to eight years in prison after his Salvadoran neighbor accused him of calling her “stupid” during a dispute over a piece of land.
Bitcoin Core Contributor Arrested After Dispute With Neighbor
Thanks to a bizarre quirk in a Salvadoran law introduced in 2011, longtime Bitcoin Core developer Jon Atack found himself handcuffed at a local police station in El Salvador after his neighbor accused him of insulting her on Saturday. Police were on the verge of sending him off to jail where he would be held until trial. Atack says the charges he was facing could have seen him spend up to eight years in prison.
(Jon Atack (left) was arrested for violating LEIV, but was subsequently released within hours / @StacyHerbert on X)
Historically, El Salvador has had a notoriously high female homicide or “femicide” rate. In 2018, one woman was the victim of a femicide every 24 hours in the South American state, according to the World Bank. That statistic led to the enactment of the “Special Comprehensive Law for a Life Free of Violence for Women” (Ley Especial Integral para una Vida Libre de Violencia para las Mujeres) or LEIV, in 2011.
LEIV has helped establish protection of women against femicide and advanced tougher punishments for perpetrators of domestic violence. However, certain peculiar aspects of the law that deal with verbal and emotional abuse can be exploited in everyday scenarios like the one Atack found himself in.
“This was about land,” Atack explained in series of posts on X. “The neighbors have been in a bitter fight with the seller of my land and another lawsuit is beginning.”
Atack explains in his posts that he agreed to buy a piece of land from a Salvadoran seller last year. But his neighbors had been embroiled in a legal dispute with that seller over ownership of the land. The American proceeded with the purchase, but on the day money exchanged hands, the neighbors managed to convince a judge to seize part of the property. Confused, Atack assumed the seizure was an error and approached his neighbors to resolve the issue.
“I proposed we inform the judge of the mistake, liberate the land, and that I not be drawn into the legal conflict between them and the seller. That it would be dumb to litigate for this,” Atack recounted. “She then called the police to say that I had insulted her, calling her stupid.”
Under Article 55 (c) of LEIV, insulting a woman can be considered verbal or emotional abuse punishable by a fine equivalent to “two to twenty-five” times the Salvadoran minimum wage, which currently stands at roughly $400 USD, according to Trading Economics. But Atack says his lawyer painted a much darker picture; the Bitcoiner would face up to eight years in prison if found guilty.
(El Salvador has one of the highest global rates of femicide / Latin America Working Group)
“My lawyer said this can be very serious,” Atack explained. “Starting with several days in jail to await a hearing, and up to 8 years in prison.”
Atack was whisked off to the local police station where his neighbor insisted on pressing charges. Soon he was in handcuffs, about to be thrown into the slammer, when suddenly, the phone rang.
“Around that time someone called the station to ask what this was about and the police filled the caller in,” said Atack. “The police said I would be free shortly. Then a half hour later they drove me home.”
It’s not clear who made the call, but Stacy Herbert, an advisor to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and director of the National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC) of El Salvador, posted a message on X assuring Atack’s followers that he would be released soon.
(Stacy Herbert (second from left) is an advisor to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele (first on right) / lapaztimes.com)
“Jon Atack will be released very soon,” Herbert wrote. “This whole case was a matter of some verbal dispute between two neighbors.”
Herbert also said Bukele himself was once accused of violating LEIV by a female political opponent in 2017. Indeed, reporting by La Prensa Gráfica shows that Xochitl Marchelli, former municipal comptroller of El Salvador’s capital San Salvador, accused Bukele of throwing an apple at her and calling her a “witch” during a September 2017 council meeting. Bukele was acquitted in 2019, but fortunately, Atack’s exoneration came much sooner.
“I was released around an hour later,” Atack recalled. “This was the first time I’ve been in cuffs and God willing also [be] the last time.”
