At first glance, it seems to some to be an irony: women who defend men who are in the dock accused of crimes considered to be gender-based. Daiana Abracinskas, María Noel Rodríguez Nader, Cecilia Salom and Laura Robatto are just some of the lawyers who decide to put aside prejudice and defend those who are accused of rape or femicide.
Most of these women are condemned by the networks. To others, on the street. From the “You have to have a stomach to be a woman and defend these guys”, to “bad feminist”, going through wishes that the same thing happen to your children that involves those you defend.
Inside the courts, where the battles really take place, nobody questions them. Among those who understand the law, it is not an issue that leads to controversy, and it is what the disseminators try to make happen in society. All inhabitants have the right to defense and professionals to exercise it.
In addition, they have been from the sidewalk across the street. They have defended victims, whom they have contained and advised. They affirm that, despite the fact that when they have to defend defendants, they do not spare empathy towards the victim, they are focused on complying with procedural guarantees and, many times, proving her innocence.
Although none of them are unaware that women are the ones who most report –and suffer– this type of crime, they all have different stories to tell. Men who come to see them because they suffer from gender-based violence and are ashamed to report sexual abuse by women on children –or on other intellectually handicapped men–, and when they have been investigated they have even killed themselves due to the pressure of having suffered a false complaint.
About the reviews, almost all agree. “No one is free. You have to be careful and not go out and incinerate people through the networks. Allow time for the prosecution to investigate. If later that person, who has all the guarantees, turns out to be guilty, they can condemn him if they want. But the opposite is happening,” said Laura Robatto, a lawyer and professor.
Diana Abracinskas
Camilo dos Santos
Diana Abracinskas
If you don’t believe the man who calls you, drop the case. “I would never defend a man who admits to me that he abused a child or that he raped a woman. He is my way of being in life, “said lawyer Daiana Abracinskas. In any case, she clarified that “it is not to the detriment of colleagues who defend the guilty, because it would be serious to be in a country where all the lawyers act like me.”
He worked on the case of the alleged abuse at the Valizas campsite and defended one of the 32 defendants in Operation Ocean. On both occasions, a judge validated his innocence (in the first case through a trial and in the second by accepting the request for dismissal made by the prosecution).
He assured that he never doubted those clients he accepted. Only once did he have a minor doubt and after a short time, when that doubt grew stronger fueled by evidence, he resigned.
The decision to take these types of cases and cross the body for them in the media has earned him much criticism. “Feminist groups told me I was a disgrace, which was an embarrassment to the genre. They have told me that hopefully one day my son will be reported and end up in prison, they have insulted me in the street. In 97% of the cases, by women (…) They use the culture of cancellation against the women we defend when denounced. It is expected by a certain group that women only defend victims and they put the glass ceiling on us, about which we complain so much. They want to tell us how to do our job,” she criticized.
The most repeated criticism refers to the lack of empathy. “You, being a woman, how can you not put yourself in the place of the one in front of you”, is one of the questions that she hears the most. To which Abracinskas replies: “I empathize with all the victims, as long as they tell the truth. Not only because of the issue of being cogender. We have the same quality to deceive, to be violent, as any man. Being a woman does not exempt you from having responsibility. nestity doesn’t either.
Maria Noel Rodriguez Nader
Maria Noel Rodriguez Nader
At his desk in the Public Defender’s Office, he analyzes the hundreds of files of the cases in which he acts regularly. Nobody says no. As a public defender, she can’t either. Being the mother of girls, she sits at the table with rapists and femicides to define the strategies they will use in court. “There is no contradiction there, we all have the right to a quality defense (…) All ethical and moral questions are left out when you take on a case,” summed up the member of the Criminal Commission of the Association of Public Defenders.
In his case, economics is not a motivation, he receives a fixed salary regardless of the number of defendants or the crime for which they are investigated.
“I have female daughters and more than once in networks they have told me ‘that never happen to you with your daughters’. It means that we are not forgiven that as women we assume this role of defense for men. But the person in front of me doesn’t matter much to me, I have to fulfill my role, my job and give the person all the guarantees that he has according to the Constitution and the law, “she said.
From that, they plan the strategy that most favors their client. If you are very committed, he suggests that you take the option of agreeing to an abbreviated agreement (where you can benefit from a reduction of up to a third of the sentence in exchange for assuming guilty). If he considers himself innocent (which as a lawyer is more motivating), he encourages them to go to trial.
Still, he feels empathy for the victims. “I have it, but my focus is on the presumption of innocence and due criminal process. If I don’t have that in my head I can’t be doing this. How does a doctor save the life of a murderer or a terrorist? And well, because it is his role: to save a person’s life, it does not matter if he is sentenced for 30 years or not, “he said.
As for the criticism generated by his work, he explained: “These are crimes with a very sensitive connotation (…) The turns they want to give him to criticize do not correspond. Here the one who judges is the judge”.
Laura Robotto
Leonardo Carreno
Laura Robotto
He recounts how his visits to the Comcar are and wonders if those who point their fingers at their defendants know what it means to be imprisoned. And worse, being in prison being innocent. Despite this, the Criminal Law professor agrees with her colleagues in that she “always” empathizes with the victims. Although she has defended them, her career has led her to be on the other side. “You have to see who is the principal in the criminal process, even though you do not have to stop taking into account the victim and society, it is perhaps the last chance that a person has that their principle of innocence continues to prevail. . He is the protagonist of the process. It’s his process,” she recounted.
“Does anyone know what it’s like to be in prison being innocent? Because I had innocent prisoners. I had people commit suicide in jail. I had a client who went to a hearing and got pills in a hotel and died. He was a young boy. Everyone is impressed until he touches people. People from all social classes. Everyone thinks like this until he touches them with a son, a cousin, a grandfather”, he stated.
Although he does not remember receiving direct criticism for his role, he criticizes those who single out his colleagues for “defending the bad guys.” “One cannot lose sight of the fact that no one is guilty until proven otherwise. What is happening today is that if you assume a defense of someone who is accused of having done something, you are defending the bad guys. First show me that they are bad and for that you need a defense. If we are going to be guided only by complaints, let’s abolish the Judiciary, the Prosecutor’s Office and simply be guided by mere complaints. A bit of that is happening today. Everything is mixed, ”he stressed.
Although he defends people who he knows are guilty, because they have the right to a defense, there are cases where he knows that he could not defend them as he should because of “things he does not like” and he does not take them. “You can explain why he did that, look for extenuating circumstances, look for reasons, causes of justification, for example, if the person was misled,” he exemplified about those who assume guilt.
Cecilia Solomon
Camilo dos Santos
Cecilia Solomon
She was a prosecutor, adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of the Republic and today she is a criminal defender. She believes that the imbalance is double, on the one hand, some sector of society that “does not understand the work of the lawyer”, on the other, a legal one: the law of gender violence (19,580).
“I believe that we have adapted ourselves to international regulations and have made great advances, long before the gender law, which also has errors that generate enormous inequity (…) it gives a privileged status to women, after what It has been the fight for women’s vindication that has been going on for many years. But the law incurs some excesses, generating a privileged status that does not recognize other people who are inferior, such as people with intellectual or motor disabilities, ”she considered.
After having assumed the defense of a man in Operation Ocean, she wanted to enter social networks – where she is not assiduous – to “snoop around” and she got a surprise. “I discovered some woman who talked about me (criticizing the decision to assume the defense of this man). It seems to me a reactionary, authoritarian and fascist attitude”, she condemned and assured that being a woman does not generate “any kind of conflict” when taking these cases. “It generates the biggest rejection in the world. I think it is an impertinence and a lack of education (…) Those who assume positions of this nature do not know what the right of defense is and what the rule of law is. In a dictatorship, the defenders were defenestrated, there is the parameter, ”she added.
Beyond that, in the specific case of Operation Ocean – in which his client will go through an oral trial – he does not understand that he is “Defending a person who has violated the rights of no one, but if he had done so, I would also defend him”, he affirmed and emphasized that everyone should have access to a defender who protects their rights.
In this case there were 32 initially accused, 11 will go to trial, nine were sentenced through an abbreviated process and 13 were dismissed.
