Curled up in a chair, shoulders hunched and flashes pointed, Joseph Alperovich He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the sexual abuse of his niece, who worked under him when he was a senator. Judge Juan Ramos Padilla He ordered that he be immediately arrested and sent to prison. Three of the people who testified at the trial were also ordered to be investigated for false testimony.
The three-time governor of Tucumán listened to the sentence with his eyes closed, his head bowed and his hands clenched: the judge finished saying that he was responsible for simple sexual abuse repeated on three occasions, two of which were attempted and six other acts. with carnal access, through intimidation, abuse, a relationship of dependence on power and authority.
“Proceed, Commissioner,” the judge said. Alperovich did not look at anyone. He stood up and put on his coat while his children hugged him and said goodbye. The reporters asked him if he had anything to say. But he didn’t say anything.
The oral and public debate against the former governor of Tucumán began on February 5, where He was tried for a total of nine crimes of attempted abuse, simple abuse and aggravated abuse with carnal access. 15 hearings were held and almost 70 witnesses and experts participated. This Tuesday Alperovich refused to say his last words before the verdict and judge Juan Martín Ramos Padilla set for 8 p.m. today, after a fourth intermission.
However, at the beginning of the trial he defended himself: “I know that everyone will say the same thing, but I want to tell you, Mr. Judge, that I am 68 years old, I have 11 grandchildren, 4 children… I want the truth because this killed me. With all the respect that I have for the Judiciary, I want the truth and I ask you to pay attention, Mr. Judge, if you can, or the prosecutor, to all the evidence.” He was always accompanied by his children.
The victim, 35 years younger than the accused, in addition to being his niece, worked for him in the electoral political campaign that tried to relocate him for the fourth time in the governorship of Tucumán in the 2019 elections. According to the investigation, the crimes occurred between December 14, 2017 and March 26, 2018 in the cities of San Miguel de Tucumán and Yerba Buena, and in an apartment in Alperovich in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Puerto Madero, at which time he occupied a seat in the Senate.
Among the witnesses who were summoned by Justice were various relatives of the complainant, such as her parents and grandmother. Also friends and former coworkers. Everyone realized his notorious physical, mental and emotional deterioration during the time when FL worked for the then national senator.
On the other hand, three witnesses were on the verge of going to prison at the request of the prosecution for being reticent or committing false testimony. Manuel Frías, who worked as a waiter for the leader; Víctor Hugo Decataldo, a transportation businessman who also had a romantic relationship with Sara, daughter of the accused, and David Cayatta, former driver of the former provincial president. Regarding them, the judge decided to wait for the moment of sentencing.
According to the complainants, the “accesses”, “touchings” and “unseemly situations” occurred in one of the accused’s apartments in Puerto Madero; in his personal car while they traveled to make visits to the interior of Tucumán within the framework of a proselytizing campaign to compete against Juan Manzur for the 2019 governorship; in the Alperovich bunker on Martín Fierro street in the provincial capital and in two villas in the town of Yerba Buena.
Throughout the hearings, Carolina Cymerman and Pablo Rovatti, members of the complaint, denounced: “José Jorge Alperovich is the author of all the events (…), which occurred in different homes located both in this city and in San Miguel de Tucumán and in Alperovich’s vehicle. To commit them, The accused took advantage of his enormous power that he had at work, family and political level throughout the province.. He had been elected governor three times and was, at the time of the events, national senator and ad honorem advisor for the province.”
In tune, the representative of the Public Ministry, Sandro Abraldes, expressed: “This trial is a trial of the impunity of power,” and specified: “José Alperovich was always located at the top, in a position of broad power, and FL far below, in an area of submission. According to him, the accused, when he saw the complainant (for the first time, at a political event), decided that he should add her to her team because her physical beauty had a great impact on him. “She didn’t want her to work with him, she wanted her for bed.”
In the other side, The defense rejected the existence of all the facts and supported the theory of an “armed cause.” For this, he raised suspicions regarding the financing of the parades that came to light a day after the letter that the complainant published in November 2019 accusing her second uncle of abuse. Those posters, she said, were seen in Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Tucumán and linked the accused with the actor. Juan Darthés. In this context he targeted the current national deputy Carlos Cisnerosrecognized political adversary of the former governor in his province.
In this regard, the complaint responded: “Alperovich said that all this is a big lie, that he did not do anything of what he is accused of, that it is even a false complaint framed in a dirty campaign prepared by -the national deputy- Carlos Cisneros, his supposed lifelong enemy, and by -the former councilor of San Miguel de Tucumán and former partner of the alleged victim- David Mizrahi. (…) None of this is credible or plausible: it makes no sense.”
FL’s father is José Alperovich’s first cousin. According to what he said in his statement, they had a “lifelong relationship, from playing together when we were kids.” “My father was the brother of his mother, Marta Alperovich. “My father was José Alperovich’s godfather,” he said.
“I accompanied José for many years, not only as a cousin in 2003, when his political history began. I told him that I was accompanying him because he was his cousin and because he loved him and wanted him to do well. And he did very well. Then time passed, 2010, he was no longer José: he had another look, another posture, another attitude. I don’t know, the head, the power,” he said and added: “If you want to know a person, give them power, and you’ll realize who it is. I didn’t know that psychopathy that José had.”
At the time of telling about her daughter’s complaint, she recalled: “One morning, I don’t remember exactly the date, my daughter sat me down in a cafe – in Yerba Buena -, after having seen her for a while prologue, emotionally unstable, very thin , he told me ‘dad, I need to be with you’. There she told me ‘what happened to me happened to me’. It’s hard for me to say it, I’m the dad. After that I started smoking again after 5 years.”
“Dad, they harassed me. Dad, they raped me,” she explained when they asked her to specify the details of that conversation that occurred in 2019. “What do you mean they raped you, if he’s my cousin? There I asked him not to tell me more. The bullet was already inside me… That’s where my fight began. I had two options, and you who are parents will understand me. Luckily I took the smarter option. Because if not, I would not be here today, I would be in prison,” he added.
As a family member, he also stated Sara Alperovich, former provincial legislator and third daughter of the four that the accused former president had. According to her story, during the time that the complainant worked with the former governor, they forged a friendship between the two, to the point where the young woman began to tell her about a couple who used gender violence against her. “I was worried about FL, I told her that if she continued with him she was going to continue getting sick. I told her that I had to do therapy, that the same thing had happened to me…She looked skinnier and thinner,” and added: “From February -2019- until she resigned -the complainant- she was very bad and I “I knew it was because of gender violence and that person’s mistreatment of her.”
“How did you find out about the version of the abuse?” Prosecutor Abralde asked him. “We had already lost the elections. In November is when she denounces, oh coincidence, the same day of non-violence against women. It was all a great campaign against us. She needed to attract attention,” responded the former provincial legislator.
The former senator also declared Beatriz Mirkinwho was a deputy, senator and candidate for lieutenant governor as Alperovich’s running mate in 2019. Her figure generated controversy in the cause for having led a feminist agenda within Peronism, being the only senator who voted in favor of the IVE law.
“I have no doubt that this was an orchestrated campaign to affect politically and personally, not only Alperovich, who was killed, but also me,” he said and added: “I have no doubts, although I cannot prove it: there was a political campaign of the opposition headed by Carlos Cisneros.”
