The former sub-inspector of the Federal Police Mario Sandoval will begin to be tried this Wednesday for the illegitimate deprivation of liberty and the imposition of torture on the student and militant of the Peronist Youth (JP) Hernán Abriata, who was kidnapped by a group of tasks of the last dictatorship in October 1976 and remains missing.
The trial will be held in person and will be open to the public in the SUM courtroom of Comodoro Py 2002 in this capital, where the Federal Oral Court 5 will judge Sandoval.
During the afternoon of this Tuesday, the TOF notified the complaints that finally the trial would be in person, and not virtual, as it had determined in the first instance.
“It was outrageous that it was virtual, because it was going to be a secret trial,” questioned Carlos Loza, a survivor of the clandestine center that operated in the former ESMA during the last civic-military dictatorship and a witness in this case.
Sandoval is being investigated for his alleged participation in the Navy operation that kidnapped Abriata at dawn on October 30, 1976, when the 25-year-old architecture student and member of the Peronist University Youth
The preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9:30 am, after which the prosecutor’s request will be heard and later an extension of Sandoval’s investigation, Loza told this agency.
Despite the Court’s rectification on the possibility of attending the trial, Loza criticized that the decision was communicated “from one day to the next” and pointed against the Justice for “putting obstacles”.
TOF5 denied access to the courtroom to the cameras of the community media outlet La Retaguardia, which since the start of the pandemic has broadcast live on YouTube of all trials for crimes against humanity.
“The fact that we do not generate our own images is going to prevent us from taking close-ups and having a good quality image of the accused,” the responsible editor of La Retaguardia, Fernando Tebele, told Télam. The co-founder of that medium pointed out that “it is not the first time that it happens” and that with these decisions Justice “remained in history.”
As part of the investigation of the case, in 2017 an investigation team led by federal judge Torres found an inscription on the wall that would belong to Abriata on the property where the ESMA clandestine center operated.
“The testimonial hearings will not be broadcast. The previous ones, the investigations of the accused and the allegations will be broadcast. The same thing that happened with the trial of the Federal Oral Court 2,” he remarked, referring to the same prohibition during the trial of six former members of the Mercedes Infantry Regiment 6 (RIM 6).
However, Tebele stressed that this time “there is something a little more serious” because “this Court does not allow us to enter either the virtual courtroom or the face-to-face courtroom. We cannot enter either of them,” pointing out that this will prevent them from being able to choose between the images recorded by the court cameras.
In that sense, he pointed out that Sandoval’s defense had already requested that “the trial not be televised.” “They ask that for a matter of modesty it not be televised and the court half-heeds it,” she said, adding: “It seems like a protection measure for the accused.”
“It is a measure of censorship because it is an oral and public trial, and they should stop broadcasting because it gives publicity,” argued Loza.
Relatives of Abriata filed a complaint against Sandoval after the annulment of the Due Obedience and Full Stop laws, and in 2012 federal judge Sergio Torres filed the lawsuit in France to extradite the former police officer.
Despite the Court’s decision, La Retaguardia will still broadcast the images of the trial provided by the court on its channel.
Sandoval is being investigated for his alleged participation in the Navy operation that kidnapped Abriata at dawn on October 30, 1976, when the 25-year-old architecture student and member of the Peronist University Youth (JUP), He was at his home in the Federal Capital.
Democracy returned, and when investigations into the dictatorship’s human rights violations began, the former policeman fled to France, where he obtained citizenship and graduated in security and economic intelligence.
Relatives of Abriata filed a complaint against Sandoval after the annulment of the Due Obedience and Full Stop laws, and in 2012 federal judge Sergio Torres filed the lawsuit in France to extradite the former police officer.
During the afternoon of this Tuesday, the TOF notified the complaints that finally the trial would be in person, and not virtual, as it had determined in the first instance.
The Paris Court of Appeal, on May 28, 2014, and the Versailles Court of Appeal, on October 19, 2017, issued two rulings in favor of extradition.
Those sentences were confirmed on May 14, 2018, through a resolution of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation.
On August 31, 2018, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe signed a decree granting Sandoval’s extradition, and his defense appealed to the Constitutional Council.
The defendant’s defense then appealed to the French Constitutional Council to argue that the crimes charged against him had prescribed, but that body rejected his arguments and in December 2019 his extradition to Argentina was finally granted.
On August 31, 2018, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe signed a decree granting Sandoval’s extradition.
Since then, Sandoval has been in preventive detention and the trial that was to take place in May of this year was postponed until September due to problems with the court’s agenda.
TOF5 is made up of Daniel Obligado, Adriana Palliotti and Fernando Canero, while the prosecutors are Leonardo Filippini and assistant Marcela Obetko.
As part of the investigation of the case, in 2017 an investigation team led by federal judge Torres found on the property where the ESMA clandestine center operated an inscription on the wall that would belong to Abriata, with a message of love for his partner. “HA Monica, I love you,” can be read, in a small space where the student was kidnapped.
