In the first oral trial for the suicide of a patient in a therapeutic community, the Prosecutor’s Office requested this Thursday a sentence of 3 years in prison for effective compliance for a former security employee of the San Camilo center, of Pilar’s Buenos Aires party, for manslaughter after the death of a young man with problematic consumption and insulin dependence who he was confined in a precarious room as punishment.
The day of allegations began after 9 in the Correctional Court No. 4 of San Isidro with Angel “Pipi” Suñezformer employee of the San Camilo Foundation, in the dock for the death, in 2013, of Saulo Rojas, a 23-year-old young man from Mendoza.
Since the sanction of National Mental Health Law in 2010, this is the first time that a member of a therapeutic community goes to trial for the suicide of a patient.
During the hearing this Thursday, the prosecutor Paula Valeria Oyola requested a sentence of 3 years in prison effective compliance and also requested that Súñez be disqualified for 10 years from holding public or private positions in any type of institution where human beings must be monitored or cared for.
“It’s been 9 years of fighting and asking for justice for my son and for the other boys from San Camilo.”Miriam Lucero, mother of the victim
Likewise, the prosecutor requested that all the documentary evidence of the case be left for investigation, since she assured that these are “facts extremely serious for the validity of human rights” and warned that the case of Saulo Rojas is “a tree that cannot fail to show us the forest.”
In turn, the defense attorney Rudolph Andreacchio requested a mitigation of the sentence before the confession of guilt expressed by the accused during the day this Wednesday, that it be suspended and coincided in the request for disqualification made by the Prosecutor’s Office.
After hearing the arguments, the judge Juan Facundo Ocampo summoned a new hearing next Monday for the reading of the verdictdespite the fact that the victim’s family hoped that the sentence would be defined this Thursday.
“It’s been 9 years of fighting and asking for justice for my son and for the other boys from San Camilo,” Saulo’s mother, Miriam Lucero, who wore a black T-shirt that said “Love defeats hate,” assured Télam.
“The judge will decide what degree of responsibility Súñez has,” added the woman, noting that although the sentence is “two years, three, five or none, here I am the one condemned to sadness and the absence of my son.”
The accused was a security employee of the San Camilo Foundation, where Saulo had been hospitalized since June 2012 and a year later he took his own life in a room called “el gomado”, where patients were held as punishment, something prohibited by the Mental Health Law sanctioned in 2010.
In 2017, the establishment was closed by the Buenos Aires Ministry of Health after verifying “serious building shortcomings, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment provided to users.”
For the death of Rojas they were charged Martin Iribarneowner of the Foundation, and Alexander Hyacinthpsychologist and therapeutic director, who did not have a criminal record and accepted a “probation”.
Súñez, on the other hand, arrived at the oral trial instance accused of manslaughter and the prosecutor alleged this Thursday that “it has been possible to prove with all the evidence and the testimonies that on June 14, 2013 the accused, who was serving guard function in San Camilo, isolated Saul in a room under construction and violated the duty of care that was required of him”.
On this point, the prosecutor specified that it was a room “without plaster, without floor, without furniture, without electricity,” and pointed out that the establishment’s instructions ordered that security personnel should remove from the patient “objects that could threaten his life when the person was isolated”.
Reviewing all the evidence, the representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office indicated that “Súñez, in a grossly negligent manner, did not remove an element of great importance, the belt, with which Saulo Rojas took his own life,” and alleged that the patient “He made that decision because Suñez didn’t do what he should have done.”
“Saulo was a 23-year-old person with these effects, two diseases (diabetes and problematic consumption) and an extreme state of vulnerability,” the prosecutor remarked, warning that it cannot be argued that Súñez had “mere carelessness.”
For his part, the lawyer for the victim’s family, Yamil Castro Bianchi, adhered to everything the prosecutor proposed and declared: “What happened here does not have to happen anymore. The confinement does not cure, the confinement kills.”
“The sticker was a piece of terror, and we know that the one who had control of the keys was the accused,” added Castro Bianchi, stressing that “if Súñez had adopted the security measure, we would not be here today.”
He also requested that once the sentence has been passed, a communication be made to the Boenarense Ministry of Health and its Undersecretary for Mental Health and Problematic Consumption so that “they are notified of what has happened and can continue to happen.”
Once the hearing was over, Saulo’s mother met outside the court with a group of ex-patients from San Camilo and the organization against institutional violence “Mothers in Struggle”, who came to offer their support.
“There are many responsible for the horrors of San Camilo and I think there is much more,” said Saulo’s mother.
And he concluded: “There are other people in charge that if justice is not done, that if it is not made visible, they will continue to profit from the children’s health.”
