Tomorrow It will be a crucial day in the possession case and provision of images of child sexual abuse which has as its protagonist the former Channel 10 journalist, Emiliano Gatti, and who, if found responsible for the crimes he is accused of, could face an effective condition sentence that starts at 4 years in prison.
Thursday Closing arguments were made in the trial that lasted six days and had several witnesses, including experts, specialists and ex-partners and friends of the press worker. who also chaired the organization Juntos Para Sumar.
Last Thursday, in his closing speech, Chief Prosecutor Graciela Echegaray emphasized in the tests carried out on electronic devices that on November 15, 2022, the only accused was kidnapped from his private home at 3 Arroyos Street, 1600.
The support of the evidence that presented before the court made up of judges Luciano Garrido, Verónica Rodríguez and Emilio Stadler, was based on the reports of specialists from the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary. from Río Negro who gave specific and specific details about the days and time in which those 50 videos had been downloaded from the e-Mule platform. And the details of when they were copied to other devices.
But one of the testimonies that provided greater support to these expertise was that of the lawyer Cecilia Chiodi who is also a representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
The computer crime specialist gave details of the investigation process that the MPF carried out in the process against the journalist who -initially- It was identified as “Target 66”.
The computer traces that the accused would have left on his electronic devices were “unequivocal” to trace the route taken during the time that he would have carried out those actions that were detected from the information platforms. ICACCOPS (Internet Crimes Against Children Child Online Protection Systems) and CPS who are dedicated to searching for users with this profile.
Another of the key moments of the process was when the room was cleared and the videos found on Gatti’s equipment were released, which caused one of the experts to decompensate in the room. Likewise the prosecutor He had to incorporate by reading the details of each material, which reported sexual abuse of minor children who in some cases were under 2 years old.
Echegaray ratified the classification of the crimes against Gatti: facilitation of images of child sexual abuse (in 50 incidents), aggravated by the age of the victims (under 13 years of age), in an ideal contest with possession of images of child sexual abuse (50 incidents), aggravated by the age of the victims (under 13 years of age); both in real competition with possession for unequivocal purposes of distribution (50 facts), as author (arts. 45, 54, 55 and 128 first, second, third and fifth paragraphs of the Penal Code).
The complainant, Gabriela Prokopiw, was in the same sense. And she maintained that the journalist’s responsibility has been demonstrated with the evidence presented in the file and, like the MPF representative, she requested Emiliano Gatti’s declaration of responsibility.
For the head of the Association Mothers Who Break the Silence, the journalist “downloaded those 50 videos.” «Childhood sexual abuse, Never Again», he stated at the closing of his presentation.
Gatti’s defense
The two plaintiff lawyers of Emiliano Gatti, Joaquín Hertzriken Catena and Marcelo Hertzriken Velasco, they maintained their innocence. During the process they tried to distort the procedures carried out by the justice system and the police. And they also brought witnesses – among them ex-partners – to talk about the personality and profile of the former Channel 10 worker.
On the last day, andIn the minutes before the closing of this stage of the process, they tried to introduce the figure of a person who would have been in a relationship with Gatti and who would be responsible for downloading those 50 videos.. The truth is that this witness had been provided by the accused’s own defense although he gave up at the last moment from giving testimony in the courtroom, which caught the attention of the prosecution.
«I have the report that on December 14 (…) he did not want to appear and was called. He is not a straw man, he exists and changed his phone. “He was expelled from his home as a result of this,” the lawyer emphasized in his closing statement when supporting his theory.
He The jury’s verdict will be announced tomorrow at 10:30 and as reported minutes ago, for now it will be held in the basement room of the Judiciary building, although this information has not been officially ratified since there would be a possibility of it being transmitted directly via Zoom.
