This Monday the final stage of the trial of José Alperovichwith the allegations of the complaint, made up of lawyers Pablo Rovatti and Carolina Cymerman, who They asked for 22 years in prison for the former governor of Tucumán, accused of nine acts of sexual abuse. In addition, they requested that he be detained in preventive detention if convicted. The prosecution, meanwhile, He asked for 16 years and six months in prison. Likewise, he requested that he have police custody and be controlled with electronic anklet until the day of the verdict.
Now it is the court that will have to decide if the former governor can return to Tucumán or if he has to remain in Buenos Aires under the surveillance of the Judicial Branch until the sentence.
Read also: Final stretch in the Alperovich trial for sexual abuse: the allegations began and when the verdict will be defined
“In this trial we were able to prove that Alperovich is guilty of all the reported acts. We ask that he be judged under the qualification of sexual abuse with carnal access repeated on six occasions, in real competition with seriously outrageous sexual abuse”said Rovatti. For the complaint, “facts 1, 3 and 5 constitute a single fact.”
The prosecution maintains the accusation which was made when brought to trial, with the classification of sexual abuse aggravated by carnal access on six occasions, and for having committed at least three acts of sexual abuse, two of them attempted. All in real contest, that is, the penalty must be considered separately. It takes as aggravating factors the submission, the asymmetry of power and the authority he had as a public official, in addition to the physical and psychological deterioration.
“The voice of the complainant and her word are going to come to life”: the extensive argument of the complaint
Cymerman was the first to present her arguments and, in just over four hours of presentation, she stated: “During the entire debate we were able to prove that Alperovich committed multiple acts of sexual abuse.”
The lawyer, who is also part of the accusation along with Esteban Galli, He said that the alleged abuses attributed to him “are of various natures and occurred in homes in Buenos Aires and Tucumán. Also in Alperovich’s cars when traveling to different visits in the province.”
“To give my arguments, I am going to take the testimony of the victim, which represents fundamental evidence of the charge in cases of sexual violence. During all this time, the accused carried out a brutal campaign to delegitimize the complaint,” he said.
José Alperovich is accused of sexual abuse. The verdict will be known in mid-June. (Photo: Carolina Villalba / TN).
“I believe that in this place, the voice of the complainant and her word will come to life. “She, who testified for more than 5 hours, with an advanced pregnancy, provided clarifications and details of the event, some of which were shocking, while the accused tried to establish that it was an armed story,” the lawyer added.
Cymerman gave detailed details of the complainant’s testimony, recounted what she experienced between 2018 and 2018, and discredited Alperovich’s statements during her statement last week.
“The complainant assured that she was offered to join the campaign team and this does not coincide with the story of the accused who said that she was the one who approached her daughter Sarita to ask her to join the team. It was during an event, in a chance meeting, that she was asked to join,” she explained.
Alperovich said he never abused the complainant. (Photo: Leandro Heredia / TN).
“She worked in public administration and Alperovich told her that she could not be in both spaces. Then, she asked her father if she could go to work with him, and he replied: you’re stupid, go ahead, he’s your uncle. Blood does not turn into water. Therefore, ddecided to join, due to the trust of the family bondalthough they had not had prior contact,” he confided.
“The victim felt like family, he gained trustfelt that the space was safe. The sinister thing would appear a few days later, during a trip to Buenos Aires, where she went with the hope of professional progress, but Alperovich erased everything in one fell swoop. She always had her intentions clear, he too and it was to sexually submit her”he added.
Read also: José Alperovich cried at the trial while the complaint against him for sexual abuse was read to him
According to the complaint, the events were repeated in a home in Tucumán, some of them serious, and also in the private cars with which Alperovich made visits to different cities in the province.
The complaint and the prosecution give their arguments this Monday in the trial against José Alperovich. (Photo: TN)
For more than four hours, Cymerman recounted the witnesses who passed through the Oral Criminal Court No. 29 of CABA, among them the gynecologist who found sexual injuries in the complainant, the psychologist who warned “traumatic consequences”the former audiovisual workers of the campaign who confirmed the sexist attitudes by the accused, and also mentioned the statements of the relatives of both parties.
After that, he spoke Pablo Rovattianother lawyer who is part of the complaint, and discredited Alperovich’s defense during his statement last week, when he decided to use the last word and assured that it was “an armed complaint.”
The lawyer also listed the evidence that was presented in favor of the accused, refuted it, and mentioned the witnesses who are accused of false testimony, David Cayata, Carlos Frías and Victor Decataldo, who would have tried to benefit the accused.
Read also: The strong defense of Alperovich’s daughter in the middle of the rape trial: “My father is innocent”
Both Rovatti and Cymerman harshly questioned the part experts who psychologically analyzed the complainant, and asked to submit a report to the Ministry of Health to evaluate the proceedings in the trial. “They failed in their role as experts and committed serious professional ethical misconduct“said the lawyer.
At the close of the arguments, The request for the complaint was 22 years in prison.: “Alperovich is guilty of all the reported acts. We ask that he be tried under the classification of sexual abuse with carnal access repeated on six occasions, in real competition with seriously outrageous sexual abuse,” said Rovatti.
José Alperovich said that the trial against him was organized for a political motive. (Photo: Leandro Heredia / TN).
“There was submission by the accused towards his niece and former collaborator, whom he sexually abused on repeated occasions, and his conduct after the events, to humiliate and delegitimize her, was serious. He also abused his enormous power as governor and senator. They are all aggravating factors and there is nothing to assess as a mitigating factor,” he said.
“Patriarchal and bossy,” is how the prosecutor described José Alperovich
The prosecutor’s turn for arguments arrived at 5:30 p.m., when Sandro Abraldes took the floor and made his presentation through a series of slides. To relate the nine acts of sexual abuse that are attributed to José Alperovich, he showed images, videos, audios and multiple pieces of evidence that were aired during the three months of debate.
“The accused, when he saw the complainant, decided that he should add her to his political team because her physical beauty had a great impact on him. With a patriarchal and bossy attitudeAlperovich exercised his power and put in a asymmetrical position to the victim,” he expressed in his statement.
José Alperovich in the trial against him. (Photo: Leandro Heredia / TN).
“In this trial, we supported all the accusations in question with sufficient evidence and we were able to reconstruct the events. The victim’s story was consistent and persistent in the time. He did not use the complaint politically, he protected himself, he did not seek a charge, nor did he expose himself in the media as the accused intends to impose,” he stated. And he added: “The defense argument cannot be sustained, however, the victim’s story can be verified with factual evidence.”
Abraldes completely ruled out that the complaint was a “plot” against the former governor, as he said in his statement, and opined: “His defense cannot be to accuse the victim that she wanted a position on the campaign list but, since it was not given to her, she decided to take revenge and submit to this entire criminal process.” , with all the level of exposure that implies. It is hardly credible.”
The prosecutor questioned the silence of those around him, especially that of his daughter Sara and his secretary in the Senate, Beatriz Mirkins. He also criticized his collaborators, such as custodians and political advisors, whom he called “serial applauders and defenders.”
The arguments of the defense, led by Augusto Garrido, will take place on Wednesday the 12th. The lawyer maintains that there is insufficient evidence to support the complaint and will seek the acquittal of Alperovich, who is about to turn 70.
While the prosecution, as mentioned above, maintains the accusation which was made when brought to trial, with the classification of sexual abuse aggravated by carnal access on six occasions, and for having committed at least three acts of sexual abuse, two of them attempted. All in real contest, that is, the penalty must be considered separately. It takes as aggravating factors the submission, the asymmetry of power and the authority he had as a public official, in addition to the physical and psychological deterioration.
