The day after the sentencing Joseph Alperovich to 16 years in prison for having sexually abused his niece, his daughter spoke and questioned the ruling of Justice: she assured that the accusations against the former governor of Tucumán are false.
“It’s all a lie and the truth is going to come to light”stated Sara Alperovich in a brief dialogue with the press, outside the Ezeiza prison, where she visited her father after his first night in detention.
On Tuesday, Judge Juan Ramos Padilla sentenced the former provincial president to 16 years in prison for nine acts of sexual abuse (three attempted) and to perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
“We are going through the worst moment that someone can go through when something is false, it is unfair, this is tremendous,” added his daughter during contact with journalistic mobile phones.
The process lasted five years since the complaint was filed, four and a half months of trial and had about 80 witnesses among whom was his daughter, who is a former provincial legislator and the third daughter of the four he had with Beatriz Rojkés de Alperovich. .
“We are all equally united as a family, both my mother and us, her children and so many people who are not supporting us,” said Sara Alperovich, who also said that her father “was fine” during his first night in prison.
The young woman, who was 27 years old when the abuses were committed, between December 2017 and December 2018, performed secretarial duties for 18 months within Alperovich’s space in the campaign in which she sought to recover the governorship of Tucumán in 2019. But She is also the niece of the convicted man, daughter of a first cousin of the now detained man.
“I am not going to speak, Mr. Judge,” were the words of the former governor before hearing the sentence from Judge Ramos Padilla.
Rojkés de Alperovich (68), never showed up to accompany him at the hearings as his four children did, but this Tuesday she connected by video call to find out her husband’s fate. This Wednesday, her daughter Sara said that they were still married.
The prosecutor in the case against Alperovich
Prosecutor Sandro Abraldes highlighted the work of his peers in the investigation, pointing out that the case that led to the conviction “is solid” and that there was a cultural change in cases of abuse of women in a context of “abuse of power” such as regarding Alperovich.
In addition, he referred to the criteria that was used to evaluate the evidence against Alperovich and the tools that were used to investigate the complaint of abuse against the former governor.
“The criterion for appreciating evidence has to do with rational, logical criticism and experience,” he said. And he spoke of the obvious asymmetries of age, power and repercussions on the victim’s body as a result of the abuse.
“She made the decision not to make the complaint so as not to get involved in the campaign so that what was said, which was part of a political plot, would not be said,” he said.
