The Court of Criminal Appeals of 1or Turno revoked a sentence of first instance for which he was prosecuted with prison for violent indecent assault on a man. According to the man’s defense, the Prosecutor’s Office had informed him that he would not request this precautionary measure, but later he did and the judge accepted without notifying the defense. The court stated that was not given “the opportunity to speak out”.
According to the sentence signed by the three ministers, initially the Prosecutor’s Office “demonstrated forcefully in requesting the ‘processing without imprisonment under the aforementioned accusation, with an express prohibition of approach and communication by any means, with the victim for a term of 180 days “. But later, an “informal modification” was made – of which the defense was not given a view – which “constitutes, clearly, a flagrant violation of the principle of consistency.”
Decisions that “translate significant material damage to the defendant” are not allowed when they do not correspond, they pointed out. When the prosecution decided to change the request “the Defense was already procedurally prevented from knowing it and opposing it”they later highlighted.
Prosecutor Claudia Altez justified in writing before the court that the precautionary measure to be imposed should be prison because “the accused could hinder the procedure while there is still evidence to be processed, such as obtaining testimonial statements.
Despite the fact that, for its processing in court, the prosecutor had to justify why she was requesting preventive detention, according to the ministers Graciela Gatti, Alberto Reyes and the editor Sergio Torres, this was late and “by forced marches” what “seems to be the most blatant demonstration of its non-existence”, they argued referring to the risks necessary to impose the prison.
The man is accused of having abused his stepdaughter from the time she was five years old until she was 11 years old (2016), when the girl told the situation at school. The minimum prison sentence, if found guilty, is six years.
In the appeal filed by the defense, issues related to the completion of the evidence were also claimed, but the court rejected it.
The procedural guarantees and the ghost of Operation Ocean
In different instances, the Association of Criminal Lawyers has demanded that the Prosecutor’s Office –in one way or another– improve conditions so that the right to defense is not violated. One of the latest complaints that Court prosecutor Juan Gómez has promised to address is the delay in accessing the investigative files and documentation.
In addition, this issue has crept onto the public agenda since the emergence of Operation Ocean, where errors by the prosecution team – omissions of files, testimonies and other elements – generated complaints and requests for administrative investigations by defense attorneys. In fact, prosecutor Gómez promised to initiate an investigation of the former prosecutor in the case, Darviña Viera, once she is reinstated from her medical license.
