Hear
This Monday afternoon, the actor Juan Darthés was sentenced to six years in prison by the Brazilian Justice in the case of aggravated sexual abuse against Thelma Fardin. The information was confirmed by sources from Amnesty International Argentina to THE NATION. Darthés will enjoy a semi-open regimewhich means that the former member of the cast of Ugly Duckling He will be able to leave the prison during the day but must return to prison every night and sleep in his respective cell.
“The Brazilian justice system declared the actor guilty in the rape trial against Thelma Fardin. The judges sent a clear message of justice. Firm step in the fight for the rights of victims of sexual and gender violence“, reads the publication that the NGO made on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. The reference of the group of Argentine Actresses will hold a press conference at 5:30 p.m. from Amnesty headquarters -located in Santos Dumont at 3429-, accompanied by the deputy director of Amnesty International Argentina Paola García Rey, Fardin’s lawyer before the Brazilian justice system Carla Andrade Junqueira, and Martín Arias Duval, lawyer before the Argentine justice system.
“In accordance with the modifications of Law No. 12,015, of 2009, in article 213 of the Penal Code, ‘force a person by violence or serious threat to have carnal relations or to practice or allow any libidinous act to be practiced with him’“, says the second instance ruling that declared Darthés guilty, the details of which will be announced at the aforementioned press conference.
In December 2018, Fardin together with the Actrices Argentinas collective, he publicly denounced a aggravated sexual abuse against Juan Darthés, allegedly occurred in Nicaragua when she was 16 years old and he was 45, while both were participating in a tour of the strip Ugly Duckling.
Five years later, in May 2023, Darthés was acquitted of the accusation of sexual abuse with carnal access by the Brazilian justice system. That first instance ruling was signed by Judge Fernando Toledo Carneiro, deputy of the Federal Criminal Court 7 of San Pablowhere the process against Juan Pacífico –such as the actor’s birth name– was continued after a request from the prosecutor’s office made on April 6, 2021 was accepted. At that time, an international arrest warrant was pending against the actor, issued on October 17, 2019 by a court in Managua, where the opening of the case for “aggravated rape” had been accepted after Fardin traveled to Nicaragua to ratify the complaint for the events that occurred on May 17, 2009.
At that time, the sentence acquitted Darthés “because penetration was not proven” which, according to the criminal offense in force at the time of the events, constituted a requirement for sentencing. That is to say, until 2009, it was considered “aggravated rape” when there was sexual intercourse, which is what, according to the judge, could not be determined. The magistrate stated that the report of three other women would demonstrate the defendant’s modus operandi and that the witnesses proposed by the complaint were clear when recounting the details of the abuse that Fardin had told them, but that it was not enough for a conviction verdict for rape. Beyond highlighting the coincidences of the statements and the support given by psychological experts to the victim, Toledo Carneiro maintained his position of not judging the abuse described, but rather the investigated crime of rape and, in that case, he defined that the doubt benefited the accused.
“We must not forget that we are judging a specific case, about a specific crime.“Toledo Carneiro pointed out in the ruling, implying that the acquittal of Darthés implies that it could not be confirmed that it had been abuse with carnal access. “The victim’s version was not consistent regarding carnal relations, since for more than nine years this fact was omitted in the few complaints he made to people he trusted,” the magistrate added.
“I’m tired, but they’re not going to break me“said Fardin during the conference given at the offices of Amnesty International Argentina after learning of that first ruling, in which he confirmed that he was going to appeal the sentence. “Thank you for being here after all this time. In a judicial key, my lawyers speak, I want to speak in a social key. I think that the change we made and of which my case is just an emerging one, one more example, is a battle that we won,” reflected the actress, visibly mobilized. “Of course Justice is going to be the last bastion of a historically violent and patriarchal system. I want to ask all those people who dared to break the silence, to speak after that conference in 2018, not to feel that this indoctrinates them. Don’t indoctrinate me, please, don’t let them indoctrinate you,” she added.
Junqueira, Fardin’s lawyer before the Brazilian justice system, noted at the time: “Until 2009, in Brazil, proof of sexual intercourse was required for a rape case. Then it was reformed and the penetration test was no longer required.” As the events investigated would have occurred at the end of 2009, the judge decided on that occasion to apply the law prior to 2010. “It is a first instance ruling and due to a technicality. The ruling does not speak of innocence. This decision, which is of first instance and can be appealed in second and third instance and in international courts, does not declare Darthés innocent. On the contrary, the ruling was very clear in interpreting the facts and evidence and considering that there were acts of sexual violence. If the event had occurred after 2010, the applicable law would be different“, he indicated.
THE NATION
