Seven former soldiers charged with the death of the young second lieutenant Matias Chirino during an initiation ritual in Argentinian army will be judged by simple homicide and they will have to wait for the debate in jail, after a ruling by the federal court.
The Chamber of Cassation of Comodoro Py rejected the appeals of the accused, who sought a reduction of the cover to manslaughter. Furthermore, the order of preventive prison ordered by the Federal Chamber of Currents.
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“The court decides to declare inadmissible the cassation appeals filed by the private defenses, without costs in the instance,” maintains the ruling to which he had access TN.
In December, the Federal Court of Paso de los Libres sent to an oral trial Rubén Darío Ruiz, Claudio Andrés Luna, Hugo Martínez Tárraga Reclus and Exequiel Emanuel Aguilar, Darío Emanuel Martínez, Luis Facundo Acosta and Gerardo Sebastián Bautistamarked as co-authors of the crime during an “initiation ritual” that cost the young soldier his life in a Monte 3 Artillery Group Officers’ Casino of that Corrientes city.
They all face a sentence of between 8 and 25 years of prison, and they are also accused of authority abuse to the detriment of two other incoming officers who participated in that “welcome.”
Although the Federal Court of Appeals of Corrientes had ordered in September of last year the preventive prison For those seven involved, the arrests were not made effective because the defenses filed appeals before Cassation.
There are two other defendants, Claudia Daniela Cayata and Franco Damián Grupiconoted for having been secondary participants of those same crimes and will await trial in freedom.
The second lieutenant was about to begin his career in the Army. He was 22 years old. (Photo: courtesy of the Chirino family)
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In the early morning of June 19, 2022, Chirino and two other young men – Jorge Chaile and Rufino Meza – who were about to begin their careers in the Argentine Army suffered several tortureshow to be forced to drink alcohol excessivelyjumping into a pool with dirty water and doing strenuous activities with a temperature that barely reached 3 degrees.
Chirino got the worst of it. “When he finally lost consciousnesswas abandoned on a mattress placed on the floor of a room, uncovered and without any means of heating,” the Cassation ruling mentions.
Near dawn, the second lieutenant died due to a bronchoaspiration -he choked on his own vomit- and, although he was rushed to the San José Hospital, he arrived without vital signs.
“Come look for your son, he is dead”
Ezequiel Chirinothe victim’s father, celebrated the ruling of the federal Justice. “After so many bad ones, finally a good one”said to TN in reference to the evolution of the case, which began with minor accusations of abandonment of person, failure to fulfill the duties of a public official and abuse of authority. None of them focused on the specific responsibility of those involved in the soldier’s death.
“They killed my son, without a doubt. Thank God, today we are a little closer to giving him justice,” concluded the man, who on Father’s Day 2022 received the worst news of his life.
“They killed my son, without a doubt,” said the father. (Photo: courtesy of the Chirino family)
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-Are you Matías Chirino’s father? Come get it. Is dead.
Ezequiel, who had spent the night at the Hotel Alejandro – about 20 blocks from the military base – cut off and threw the cell phone on the ground. Seconds later, wrapped in desperation, he returned the call and confirmed the most painful news: the life and dreams of his son had been cut short in that “baptism.”
