The fiscal Alicia Ghione solicitous extend the investigative reserve about him nationalist senator Gustavo Penades, accused of paying minors in exchange for sex.
This was reported by the spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office, Javier Benech, who assured that Justice agreed to Ghione’s request and granted another 120 days of reservewhich initially covered until May 29 inclusive.
“The judge understood that there is a Certain risk to victims if their identity were revealedBench added.
There is a total of eight people who testified against the nationalist senator, who contributed his version this Thursday in a hearing with Ghione which he attended accompanied by his lawyer Javier Vega. “Very calm,” he limited himself to saying when he entered the Prosecutor’s Office located on Uruguay Avenue.
At the exit, meanwhile, he assured that he had nothing to regret because I had not committed any crime.
On Thursday, the history teacher, Sebastián Mauvezín, pointed out by several victims for acting as a link between the senator and minors, also testified. “They are friends,” replied the teacher’s lawyer, Juan Carlos Fernández Lecchini, when asked about the link with Senator Penadés.
The defenses of both investigated –Penadés and Mauvezín– did not have access to the tax file due to the confidentiality imposed by Ghione, although they did have access to the statements of the people who declared they had been sexually abused. In these accounts, however, the identity of the victims was preserved.
What does it mean that the investigation is reserved
The confidentiality of the investigation is a very restrictive measure and is usually used on a few occasions, since the people investigated have the legal right to know the reasons. They are only restricted for a particular term when the Prosecutor’s Office can convince a judge that they could irreversibly hinder it if they wanted to. Ghione requested it and managed to get the Justice to authorize it, on this second occasion by Judge Marcela Vargas.
The prosecutor has various reasons for requesting it, as reported The Observer in a note published on May 9. Among other things, the prosecutor intends to give the necessary security to the victims so that they can report without leaking details of what they allege.
On the other hand, Ghione seeks to preserve the investigation from the political impact it could have, as the defendant is a senator of the Republic with a long history and weight in the government.
