A former security employee of the San Camilo center, from Pilar’s Buenos Aires party, was sentenced this Monday to three years of effective prison term for manslaughter after the suicide of a young man with problematic consumption and insulin dependence, who was confined in a precarious room as punishment.
Also, Angel “Pipi” Suñez received 10 years of “disqualification special to control people in public and private institutions”.
Suñez was charged with the 2013 death of Saulo Rojasa 23-year-old young man from Mendoza and, according to the ruling, he will not be detained until the sentence is final, as defined in the oral trial that took place in the Correctional Court No. 4 of San Isidro.
Suñez will remain free, although he may not be absent “for more than 24 hours from his home without the knowledge or authorization” of the court, nor “leave the country”, and he must appear once a month at the Office of the Prosecutor.
Since the enactment of the Mental Health Law in 2010, this is the first time that a member of a therapeutic community has gone to trial for the suicide of a patient.
Justice for Saulo Rojas!
Today sentence will be issued in the San Isidro court for the death of Saulo Rojas in a therapeutic community.https://t.co/FdTuLIh4ZK pic.twitter.com/JJeobK3IZz
— CORREPI (@CORREPI) August 8, 2022
Miriam Lourdes LuceroSaul’s mother, told Télam that “a little justice was done,” adding that she is “satisfied because what was requested was accepted.”
“After hearing the testimonies, it became clear what was happening inside,” he said, noting that “the place worked for 20 years and it was clear that something went wrong in the system, it can’t be that nobody knew about it” of what was happening in San Camilo.
He stressed that the sentence known this Monday “is not an end point” because the prosecution “allowed those who could not testify to be heard.”
In this regard, he said that “hThere are stories that must be heard and there are many who have experienced abuse, gender-based violence and torture“.
“My request is towards the people who have to watch over the rights of users of the mental health system,” he said.
The Foundation “was enabled for a certain number of people, I think 20, and when they closed it there were 60 people,” he asserted, and clarified that his son “entered there on a scholarship from the province of Mendoza.”
It is the first time that a member of a therapeutic community has gone to trial for the suicide of a patient.
the family lawyer, Yamil Castro Bianchimaintained in dialogue with Télam that the sentence “exactly what we ordered”in addition to communicating “the Ministry of Health of the province of Buenos Aires and the Undersecretary of Mental Health, Problematic Consumption and Gender Violence to denounce the control body the violation of the applicable regulations”, as it had requested before the court.
“The State cannot remain deaf in the face of this situation,” said the lawyer, adding that “the important thing about the case is that it has an impact on society; we hope to have a great change from this case.”
He warned that places “continue to exist” places like San Camilo that in many cases house “low-income people” who once hospitalized “are worse than before.”
Regarding Law 26,657, he observed that “There should be a guard from a family judge specialized in mental health, because it is not known how to act at that time.”
The defense, reported Castro Bianchi, has a period of 10 days to present the appeal.
During the hearing, Lucero stated that on July 14, 2013 they called her from the Foundation to “tell her that her son had had a heart attack” and “that they had found him in his room.”
For his part, Suñez declared that what happened was a “terrible tragedy in the negligence of not having removed the belt and the laces,” according to the ruling.
According to the testimony of the journalist Paul Galfrewho interviewed 50 people who were housed in San Camilo, a girl told him about the Saulo case and the death of Felipe who, according to the conclusion he reached, “died from a blow” 11 days before the young man from Mendoza.
Today we will do justice for you, dear Saúlo. Today your mother will do justice for you. I hope that both can rest in peace after Angel Pipi Suñez is sentenced.
(Follow) pic.twitter.com/h6HMM4Pv0E– Pablo Galfré (@Pgalfre) August 4, 2022
He reiterated that all those interviewed “spoke about gumming” and about medication, a pill that left them motionless”, in addition to “blows” and pointed to Suñez as the person in charge of security on the day of Saulo’s death.
According to the ruling, Martín Meneo intervened in the event as a “trade expert on duty” and in his statement he maintained that “signs of violence or elements that could suggest the intervention of third parties” were not observed.
Prosecutor Paula Valeria Oyola had asked last week during the arguments for a sentence of 3 years in prison of effective compliance and that Suñez be disqualified for 10 years from holding public or private positions in any type of institution where people must be monitored or cared for. Humans.
For his part, the defense attorney, Rodolfo Andreacchio, had requested a mitigation of the sentence before the confession of guilt expressed by the accused, that it be suspended and coincided with the request for disqualification made by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The defendant was a security employee of the San Camilo Foundation, where Saulo had been hospitalized since June 2012 and a year later he committed suicide in a room called “el gomado”, where patients were held as punishment, something prohibited by the Mental Health law passed in 2010.
Law 26,657 “is intended to ensure the right to mental health protection for all people and the full enjoyment of human rights for those with mental illness” and that “addictions must be addressed as an integral part of mental health”.
For the death of Rojas, Martín Iribarne, owner of the Foundation, and Alejandro Jacinto, psychologist and therapeutic director, who had no criminal record and accepted a probation, were charged.
In 2017, the establishment was closed by the Buenos Aires Ministry of Health after verifying “serious building shortcomings, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment provided to users.”
