This Friday, May 13, the deadline for the Prosecutor’s Office to present a final accusation against those accused of the mega-cause known as Operation Ocean expires, a case that emerged more than two years ago and involves more than 30 defendants and almost 20 victims. With the date approaching, this Monday the Prosecutor’s Office closed another agreement to convict, through an abbreviated procedure, a defendant.
This is the fifth person to hear a sentence at this stage of the process (and the sixth overall). According to the Director of Communication of the Prosecutor’s Office, Javier Benech, on this occasion the conviction was for “repeated crimes of retribution to minors to perform sexual or erotic acts.”
As happens in abbreviated procedures, the accused admitted his guilt and obtained a reduced sentence. In this case, the sentence imposed is mixed and includes the following regime: one month of house arrest (for medical reasons) with authorization to go out; 18 months of effective prison; five months at home with a job opportunity and six months of presentation at the nearest police station.
accessory convictions
As an accessory sentence to the main one, the prohibition of approaching the victims was imposed. It must also pay financial compensation equivalent to 12 salaries to the victims.
On the other hand, initially the man was also charged with a crime of drug supply and another of sexual abuse. As for the first, dismissal was declared due to lack of evidence. On the other hand, a new examination of another prosecutor will be carried out to find out if he will be charged or not for the second crime.
It should be remembered that the Prosecutor’s Office hopes to bring about 20 defendants to trial after it finishes closing agreements with others. So far he has reached agreements with five (there could be one or two more) and declared the dismissal of the case against three people (there could be two more).
Request the annulment of the declaration
While the Prosecutor’s Office advances with the agreed cases, the defense of the defendants who are presumed to go to trial move in another direction. In this sense, a representative of 11 defendants filed an appeal where they request the annulment of the statement of the main victim of the case.
According to the document released by Montevideo Portalthe defenders also request that the reservation on the proceedings be lifted.
The request for annulment responds to the fact that the main victim did not agree to submit to cross-examination. For them, this “violated the right to due process and the right to defense.”
The lawyers point out that “the victim’s right not to testify is not being questioned, but rather the act of choosing what she wants to testify, since it has been the venue that has determined the interrogation to which she was subjected and would determine how to It is the right that she be subjected to re-examination.”
The criticism they make is based on the fact that the summons “to a hearing was not opened to debate the forms of cross-examination that the parties had, so that in which case the victim, when summoned, confirmed or revised her expressions, was part of what was resolved by the court. headquarters, and that was the dynamic chosen by it”.
“The measure adopted by the judge deprives the defenses and subjects them to a degree of defenselessness. It is certainly a violation and irregularity that notoriously affects the right to defense, especially when there are defenses, who did not ask questions and reserved the right to cross-examination for this opportunity, “they add.
