Eva “Higui” de Jesus was acquitted this afternoon in the trial that was followed for having killed a man while defending himself from a gang rape that occurred in 2016 in the Buenos Aires town of Bella Vista.
The verdict was announced by the Oral Criminal Court 7 of San Martín, after the Prosecutor’s Office requested 10 years in prison for “simple homicide” and the defense the acquittal of this 47-year-old lesbian.
“They acquitted #higui!” tweeted Indiana Guereño, a lawyer and president of the Criminal Thought Association, present in the room.
acquitted #higui!@Higuiabsolution #AbsolutionForHigui #Higui #yotambienmedefenderia
– Indiana Guereño (@GuerenoIndiana) March 17, 2022
After more than three hours of hearing during which four witnesses paraded and Higui herself gave a statement, judges Gustavo Varvello, Germán Saint Martin and Julián Descalzo decided to advance the arguments and the verdict, initially scheduled for Tuesday.
Consequently, the protesters who for three days have kept Balbín Avenue at 1700 closed in front of the Courts to demand the acquittal of this cartonera and soccer player strengthened their presence in the place so that the cry of “I would also defend myself like Higui”.
After learning of the ruling and speaking before the members of the organizations present, “Higui” thanked them for the protection and respect that you only had.
“Thank you and we are going to continue fighting for that, for the (legitimate) defense of guachas and guaches! We are going to get girls, trans girls out of jail! Let’s go girls with everything I need them! Where is Tehuel?” said De Jesús, in reference to other women and trans women imprisoned for defending themselves and the case of Tehuel De la Torre, the 22-year-old trans young man who disappeared when he left his house on his way to a job interview in the town of Alejandro Korn.
One of the slogans of the summons to the courts was “Self-defense is health” and “I would also defend myself like Higui”, in reference to the application of the figure of legitimate defense in the cases of women who defend themselves against men who They attack them with the result that they die or have serious injuries that they did not want to cause.
the last hearing
Before the arguments, on the third day of the trial, a policewoman who assisted Higui at the scene and at the police station, three experts -two officers and one from the party- and the accused herself, who asked to do use of his right to proclaim his innocence.
“I wanted to testify, I really wanted to do it. I feel better”he told the agency of the civil association Presentes after having spoken to the court for just under an hour, to reiterate his version of events in a “very clear” way, according to witnesses in the room.
The last testimonial statement of the day was that offered by the expert psychiatrist Enrique Stola, known for his anti-patriarchal militancy and for having been the psychiatrist of the two young men who brought a trial for abuse and obtained the conviction of the priest Julio César Grassi.
“I made a statement on post-traumatic stress, both official and party experts agreed on the existence of post-traumatic stress in Higui,” Stola said in dialogue with Télam from Spain, after participating in the trial by video call.
“I think the Prosecutor’s Office wanted to show that this was the product of different traumatic events that Higui had throughout his life and not because of this attack in particular, but what I pointed out is that while it is true that they have all produced post-traumatic stress , the symptomatology at the time of the evaluation had to do with the last one because the flashbacks, the scenes that appeared to him, the anguish, nightmares, everything was related to the moment of the attack, “he added.
Stola, who participated during the investigation of the case as an expert witness when Higui’s defense was exercised by Raquel Hermida Leyenda, explained that “for post-traumatic stress to be constituted, the person has to feel that they are facing the possibility of death, being sexually assaulted or having serious injuries”, and in the case of the attack in question there would have been two of these elements, “although just one is enough because they are situations that “produce such an emotional, psychological, affective commotion that has an impact on the body and the psyche producing that stress”.
“What I did was substantiate that the stress is due to the aggression received and that if she had only wanted to take revenge and kill and had done so, she would surely be to blame, because she is not a psychopath, and she would feel depressed for having done so, but not She would have post-traumatic stress. If she has it, it’s because she was attacked.”
On the other hand, and as Télam was able to reconstruct through judicial sources, a policewoman had previously attested during her statement to the magnitude of the blows that Higui had received during the attack.
This is an agent who was at the scene of the events as soon as they happened and also at the police station with Higui.
“That police said that she was badly beaten and that they went to the cell every so often to see her so that she would not convulse or to check that she was not broken. That is very important because it validates Higui’s story,” the sources said.
During the days of the trial, seven friends and relatives of Cristian Espósito (28) -the deceased man- testified, including the other attacker of Higui -named Sandro- who also testified as a witness.
“According to his account, he was in front of Cristian and Higui came behind him and punched Esposito twice – who was a meter away – going over his shoulder, because yes, out of nowhere. The issue is that Higui measures 1.50, Cristian was 1.75 and Sandro 1.65 or 1.70, what he recounts is physically impossible,” judicial sources said.
On the other hand, the forensic expert offered details of how the only fatal stab wound occurred, which deny what Esposito’s family assured the press -the deceased man-: the blade entered from the front at the level of the heart and did not from behind, as the victim’s mother described on Wednesday and that could lead to suspicion of a treacherous attack.
At the request of the defense, the lawyer Claudia Spatacco, her psychologist Raquel Disenfeld, her sisters Taty and Mariana, a neighbor and Stola’s expert psychiatrist testified.
In addition to the parties, the audience was also attended by the director of protection of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity, Romina Chiesa; the overseer of the Ministry of Justice of the Province of Buenos Aires, Indiana Guereño; Viviana Figueroa, a member of the lesbian organization Las Safinas; and psychologist from Higui, Raquel Disenfeld.
The case
Two years late in relation to the first date set for the trial, Higui came to trial accused of “simple homicide” for defending herself from a corrective gang rape on October 16, 2016 in Lomas de Mariló, a vulnerable neighborhood of Bella Vista. where she had gone to visit her sister for Mother’s Day.
And despite the fact that she reported an attempted gang rape and that she was found fainted at the scene, with injuries to different parts of her body, her pants and underwear ripped; the fact was never investigated as such
After eight months in prison, the San Martín Court of Appeals granted her extraordinary release thanks to a strong mobilization to demand her freedom.
