Provolo case: one of the nuns accused of covering up the abuse against deaf boys asked to annul the second trial

05/03/2021 18:39

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 05/03/2021 18:39

The second trial for the sexual abuse of deaf boys at the

Antonio Provolo

Catholic school

began with a

request for the annulment

of all actions taken by the Mendoza Justice.

This was requested by the defense of the nun Kumiko Kosaka, the main accused in this new process.

The nun - known by the victims as

"the bad nun"

- is accused of being a

participant

in the aberrations that occurred at the school shelter for hard

of

hearing children and an

accomplice

of the two priests convicted in a previous trial.

There are

9 defendants

in this new trial that should begin at 8 this Monday but started a few hours later, due to technical connection problems so that the parties involved could follow it remotely.

The nun Kumiko Kosaka arrives at the trial arrested, in house arrest.

There can only be 25 people in room 4 of the Mendoza criminal jurisdiction, including the president of the court Horacio Caride and the chief prosecutor for Crimes against Sexual Integrity, Alejando Iturbide.

None of the nine accused women were present, but their lawyers were.

The defender of the nun Kosaka, Carlos Varela Álvarez, was the first to make a presentation to the court to request the annulment of this second trial.

The lawyer argues that there were

errors in the investigation of the case

, such as not having summoned Kumiko's defense during a testimonial statement by a victim who incriminated the nun.

In the first trial for the abuses in the Provolo, priests Horacio Corbacho and Nicola Corradi were convicted Photo: Orlando Pelichotti / Los Andes

During the investigation of the case, he had already made this claim and it was rejected.

However, the trial will not be able to advance until Varela Álvarez presents his objections again and the court decides to continue or suspend the oral debate.

The next step, if the trial continues, will be the reading of the facts and the accusations against the two nuns, the legal administrator and six other women who worked in management, teaching and teacher tasks at the hostel school in Luján de Cuyo, Gran Mendoza.

There are

36 victims

, children with hearing loss, who were between 5 and 17 years old when the sexual abuse, mistreatment and corruption of minors occurred.

Three condemned

The first trial ended on November 25, 2019 and priests

Horacio Corbacho

were sentenced

to 45 years in prison;

and

Nicola Corradi

, 42 years in prison, and gardener

Armando Gómez

, 18 years

in prison

.

A year earlier, in an abbreviated trial, altar boy

José Bordón

, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison

, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse

.

A long trial

In the second trial that began this Monday, the accused are the nuns: Kumiko Kosaka (46) and the mother superior Asunción Martínez (53), the legal representative of the school Graciela Pascual (65), the former principals Edith Pinacca (66), Valeska Quintana (48), Cristina Leguiza (50) and Laura Gaetán (60), the psychologist Cecilia Raffo (43) and the cook Noemí Paz (63).

The legal representative of the school, Graciela Pascual, another of the accused.

The nine women are charged for

action or omission

in their acts as responsible for the care of disabled children.

The most serious accusation is against Kosaka, who is accused as the primary participant in seven acts of abuse and as the criminally responsible perpetrator of a simple abuse.

The Japanese nun is the only one who is under house arrest, the rest remain at liberty until the end of the trial.

Among the accumulated evidence there are

52 Gesell cameras

that must be reproduced and then seen -based on the issues that arise- if it is necessary for the victims to testify again.

265 witnesses

will be summoned

and 14 defenders will participate to assist the nine accused.

It will be a trial of several months.

"The debate hearings are scheduled until October, although it is not ruled out that the trial could be extended in time due to the amount of testimonies and accumulated evidence," said the Press Office of the Supreme Court of Mendoza.

Mendoza.

Correspondent.

DD