May 2, 2024 – 01:10
On April 3, the Second Nomination Criminal Sentencing Chamber found priest Renato Rasgido guilty of four acts of “sexual abuse.” Although he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, he remains free until the ruling is final. After knowing the reasons for the conviction, the priest’s defense filed an appeal to overrule that conviction. Although both the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the complaint had requested a sentence of 24 years for the religious, both parties did not present any appeal.
Defense lawyer Luciano Rojas presented the appeal to quash one of the annulment claims rejected by the Court as well as the conviction. “The intervening Court has practiced an erroneous application of sound rational criticism in the appreciation of the evidence and has failed to observe the rules that the code establishes under penalty of nullity,” indicated the defense.
In this sense, Rasgido’s defense insisted on the psychological report carried out on the complainant. “They are not such, but beyond their name, they were actually psychological tests performed on the alleged victim. The defense has been clear and forceful in its grounds to maintain that those were expert reports and not reports,” he noted.
Furthermore, the defender maintained that the court itself warned of “the gross errors of the investigation…”. For this reason, the defense considers that “the investigation was imperfect and full of errors.”
“There is no doubt that the damage caused to the accused is concrete and effective considering that in this case the right of defense in court is at stake, the right to effective intervention of the accused. “The erroneous assessment made by the court, which is denounced, and which leads to the conclusion that the accused has been declared guilty in a cunning manipulation of arguments, is of vital importance and transcendental,” said the defense.
For the defense, the Court used a certain parameter to justify again and again the contradictions and inconsistencies on the part of the complainant and, on the other hand, another different parameter to analyze the testimonies provided by those who support the exculpatory position. According to Rojas, these testimonies “fall into demerit that removes all convicting value only due to subjective speculations.”
Guilty
Once the verdict was known, the victim stated that she was able to put an end to a stage in her life. She closed a cycle of more than 10 years, between the abuses, the complaint, the judicial process, the debate and the conviction. In this difficult process she went from victim to complainant and yesterday she was a plaintiff. Doors outside the Court, she took a breath. He heard the words “guilty” and condemnation. “I am satisfied with the number of years, that he is guilty for me is everything,” said the young man.
#Argentina
