The three men who had been declared responsible for having sexually abused – and with carnal access – a woman in Rincón de los Sauces, They were sentenced to 8 years and 6 months in prison. This was unanimously resolved by the court, made up of Judge Estefanía Sauli and her peers Marco Lupica Cristo and Juan Guaita.
Prosecutor Rocío Rivero, who investigated the case, hHe had asked the court to impose 15 years in prison on the accused. He pointed out a series of aggravating factors. He warned that the victim of the sexual assault is a woman with a disability.
From the Public Prosecutor’s Office they reported thatThe court did not take this aggravating circumstance into account. The judges understood that the prosecution did not prove at trial that the convicts knew of the victim’s vulnerable condition when they committed the abuse.
For the court, “the prosecution did not provide evidence with the necessary degree,” said Lupica Cristo, in his capacity as president of the trial court, according to the prosecutor’s statement.
The judges had unanimously declared guilty last February of the three defendants (identified with the initials RMG, LMH and FAV) as co-authors of sexual abuse with carnal access, aggravated by the participation of two or more people.
The prosecutorThe event that occurred on September 19, 2020, between 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., in the home of one of the accused in Rincón de los Sauces is attributed. The young woman and the owner of the house contacted each other through social networks. He invited her to her home and the victim attended that afternoon.
The man was accompanied by three other men. The prosecution reported that they drank alcoholic beverages and in this way took advantage of the young woman and committed sexual abuse repeatedly.
The hearing of the caesura trial, to define the penalties, which took place this Friday in Neuquén capital. The judges took into account, as an aggravating circumstance, the extent of the damage, which in the specific case was reflected andn a worsening of a post-traumatic stress disorder that the young woman shows today.
As mitigating factors, they considered in favor of the accused that they had no criminal record. The identity of the convicted persons was kept confidential to prevent the victim from being identified.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office highlighted that the sentences imposed by the court on the three convicted is located “6 months above the minimum possible for the crime for which they had been declared responsible.” and practically half of the prosecution’s claim, which had requested 15 years.
The Argentine Penal Code punishes with a minimum sentence of 8 years in prison the person who commits sexual abuse aggravated by carnal access and by the participation of two or more people. The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison.
The three men will be registered in the Identification Registry of Persons Convicted of Crimes Against Sexual Integrity (RIPeCoDIS). The defense can challenge the sentence because it is not final.
The investigation remains open against a fourth suspect of having participated in the abuses against the victim, because when the responsibility trial was made he was hospitalized for a health problem in another province.
