Hear
The complaint requested that the former governor of Tucumán be convicted Joseph Alperovich to 22 years in prisonfor him crime of sexual abuse to the detriment of his second niece and former secretary. At this Monday’s hearing, the prosecution’s arguments will also be presented. On Wednesday it will be the turn of the accused’s defense.
Alperovich witnessed the hearing of allegations and He cried when he heard the reading of the facts for which he is accused. In his left hand, he held a medal with inscriptions in Hebrew which he imprisoned on repeated occasions. His children accompanied him. His defense will argue on Wednesday and he will ask for his acquittal. That same day, or on Thursday, the sentence would be known.
The former governor of Tucumán (he served three consecutive terms, between 2003 and 2015) and former national senator is accused of three acts of sexual abuse (two, attempted) and another six acts of sexual violence aggravated by having carnal access. The events occurred both in Tucumán and in the city of Buenos Aires.
The Oral Criminal and Correctional Court No. 29 carries out the trial, with the judge Juan Ramos Padilla in front individually. The prosecutor of the case, Sandro Abraldes, is temporarily in charge of the Attorney General’s Office before the Oral Criminal and Correctional Courts No. 27. The representatives of the complaint are Pablo Rovatti and Carolina Cymerman.
According to the Tucumán newspaper The Gazette, Cymerman indicated that “the first incident dates back to December 14, 2017,” when Alperovich and his niece “traveled on the province’s private plane” to Buenos Aires. The lawyer continued with her story of the succession of abuse events and mentioned that the second occurred on December 27, 2017. “He moved forward. She told him that she didn’t want to. She told him. The situation was not one of conquest, it was one of advancement. When he didn’t want to understand something, she didn’t understand it. It was humiliating. She preferred not to say anything.“, he claimed.
Later in her presentation, the lawyer for the complaint stated that on February 9, 10 and 12, 2018, Alperovich “touched” the victim inside a vehicle. The lawyer read part of the victim’s statement: “The long trips in the car were distressing. It touched me. “He had everything orchestrated with his subordinates.”
The allegation continued with the listing of more acts of abuse, on February 18, 2018, and then in March of that same year. “In March 2018 the most extreme abuses occurred. She had assumed a leading role in the campaign. She felt humiliated, but she continued her work. On March 9, 2018, the incident took place in the living room of the house on Martín Fierro street. [en Yerba Buena, Tucumán]. Over there, Alperovich attacked her on a couch“said Cymerman, who completed: “He abused her in a bedroom.”
Cymerman added that “March 12 is event number 7: he raped her again”. The victim could not leave, the lawyer argued, and she once again appealed part of the young woman’s statement, which before the Court indicated: “I couldn’t leave that house when I wanted to. He was always surrounded by his security”. The other two events for which Alperovich is accused also occurred in Yerba Buena.
After recounting the events, the complaining lawyer described the power that Alperovich had and denounced attempts to silence the complainant. “Many times people around Alperovich approached him to offer him money,” she stated. “She rejected all offers. They wanted the complaint not to become public, this reveals that the reported events are not a surprise for Alperovich,” she reinforced.
Rovatti, the other lawyer representing the complaint, ruled out that the complaint against Alperovich was part of a “plot” for political interests, as the former governor claimed. “What was the point of making a political plot when Alperovich had already lost the elections in a landslide against [Juan] Manzur? “There was never political speculation within the framework of this complaint.” The complaint also demanded that three witnesses be detained. Are David Cayatta (Alperovich’s former custodian, who was arrested and released in April, when testifying as a witness at the trial, for providing elusive answers), Victor Decataldo (businessman) and Manuel Frias (waiter).
“Our conclusion is that Alperovich is guilty of all crimes: abuse with carnal access and seriously outrageous abuse,” Rovatti said near the closing of the complaint.
Last week, Alperovich testified for seven hours in front of Ramos Padilla and denied having abused the young woman. “Absolutely nothing happened,” said the former Tucumán president. “Do not abuse Flor. That is a lie. The truth is that I am a 70 year old man.“added the accused, who remarked: “This is an invented, armed trial, where I am clearly going to explain to you that there was a economic and political motiveI do not have doubts about it”.
In his statement, the accused also denied having a close relationship with the complainant. “I never called her niece, nor did she call me uncle. Never. She wants to establish that I was a prostitute for the secretary. All this is set up. For five years in the press she has called me violin,” he stated before the judge. He also denied having shared moments alone with his second niece.
THE NATION
