A young woman was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison for the kidnapping of Matías Berardi

A woman was sentenced this Wednesday to 6 years and 8 months in prison for the extortive kidnapping of Matías Berardi, the 16-year-old adolescent captured in Escobar, held captive in Tigre and executed in Campana in 2010, although he will remain free and closely monitored. an electronic anklet

The verdict was issued unanimously by the Federal Oral Court (TOF) 3 of San Martín, and reached Alexa Souto Moyano, who had been acquitted in a first trial, in which 10 other people were sentencedincluding their parents.

After learning of the court decision, María Inés Daveiro, Matías’s mother, told Télam that “gave him peace” that Souto Moyano was sentenced “because he knew he was guilty”.

12 years after the fact, the judges Nada Flores Vega, Daniel Gutiérrez and Walter Vendetti convicted the woman as co-author of the crime of “extortive kidnapping aggravated by the use of a firearmbecause the victim was a minor and because of the number of interveners”.

Upon hearing the verdict, which was released virtually, the condemned woman began to cry, while Berardi’s parents remained seated in front of their computer camera, displaying a photo of their son.

In the conviction, whose grounds will be announced on November 9 at 1:30 p.m., the judges decided that Souto Moyano establishes a real address where he will serve the sentence until the confirmation of the sentence monitored by an electronic anklet.

They also informed him that must be presented at the headquarters of TOF 3 of San Martín every time it is required and they imposed a ban on him to leave the country and to approach Berardi’s relatives and associates.

“Thank you, thank you,” Juan Berardi and Daveiro, the victim’s parents, were heard saying after the conviction.

“It gave us peace that she was convicted because we knew she was guilty. We were left with the bitter taste of not being able to hear what Matías lived. She was in charge of guarding him,” assured Télam Daveiro.

Matías’s mother maintained that Souto Moyano “in 12 years he always disassociated himself from the fact” and that when he had the opportunity to testify in court “he victimized himself and talked about his life.”

“When she did not want to answer questions, we confirmed that she was guilty,” said the woman, adding that it is “very important that she is convicted and that she has not been acquitted.”

Regarding the sentence of six years and eight months, Daveiro stated that the crime for which she was tried “was very serious and the number of years should have been longer” but clarified that she “trusts what the Justice decided” and only asked that the sentence “remain firm because it is very exhausting for the whole family”.

prior to sentencing, Souto Moyano had said in his last words that “he had nothing to do” with the fact for which he was being judged.

“The only thing I’m saying is that those guilty and responsible already have a sentence and are serving it. I have nothing to do with it. I need this to end for me and for it to be fair,” he said.

For its part, Eduardo Duranonaone of the Berardi family’s lawyers, indicated that he will await the grounds of the Court to define whether he will request the review of the sentence in the Cassation Chamber.

“We ask for a higher sentence. Now we are going to wait for the fundamentals to know if we are going to go to Cassation or not. What is clear, and the family was satisfied, is that Alexa’s participation in the event was proven after so many years of fighting for it,” the lawyer told Télam.

This is the second trial to which Souto Moyano is subjected, who was acquitted in the first debate held in 2013 – a ruling later revoked -, in which ten other people, including her parents, were sentenced to between 17 years in prison and life imprisonment.

In his statement last week, the official defender Diana Bergel subsidiarily requested that, if convicted, Souto Moyano receive a conditional sentence of 3 years in prison as co-author of the kidnappingcommitted when she was a minor.

In previous days, also when arguing in the trial, the prosecutor Eduardo Codesido asked that the woman be sentenced to 6 years and 8 months of pressure, which the court finally ordered.

Meanwhile, the lawyers Durañona and Santiago de Jesús, representatives of the Berardi family, requested a sentence of 20 years in prison and their immediate arrest.

Who was Matías Berardi?

Matías Berardi (16) was kidnapped at dawn on September 28, 2010 when he was returning from a graduate party in the Federal Capital and got off a van at Panamericana and Route 26 to return home to that party in the north of the suburbs.

While he was being held captive in a house in Benavídez, the kidnappers called his parents to demand a ransom of 30,000 pesos.

At one point the teenager managed to escape, went out into the street and asked the neighbors for help, to whom he told them that they had him kidnapped, although he was unable to get anyone to shelter him and the gang recaptured him and decided to shoot him dead, after which He left the body abandoned near Route 6, in Campana.