09/08/2021 11:21 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 09/08/2021 11:21
A man who was
sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a girl
will not go to prison: the ruling that convicted him was annulled by the Superior Court of Justice of Chubut due to the delay between the verdict and the sentencing.
The trial will take place again.
In addition, sources linked to the prosecution confirmed that "the attorney general of the province, Jorge Miquelarena, appealed the sentence before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation", so the case could
remain in a judicial "limbo" perhaps for years
, the sources pointed out, due to a formality based on non-compliance with the deadlines.
The defendant DAH, 52, was reported to the Women's Police Station by an adolescent close to him who claimed to have been the victim of
systematic
abuse on his part
since he was 11 years old
.
The investigation fell to the prosecutor María Alejandra Hernández, who charged DAH with the crime of "
sexual abuse with carnal access aggravated
by the pre-existing cohabitation situation to the detriment of a minor girl."
The victim filed the complaint at age 16 and DAH was brought to trial, which was conducted orally, but not publicly.
Although he was sentenced to
10 years in prison
by a Puerto Madryn court, his defense attorney, Fabián Gabalachis, made a presentation in which he argued that more than three months had passed between the guilty verdict and the sentencing. performed after the caesura hearing.
"I made the presentation because this cannot happen, the trials have a principle of continuity and from the beginning of the debate to the caesura hearing it is the same trial that has
deadlines clearly established by the Code,
" explained Gabalachis.
The criminal prosecutor appealed a complaint to the court of origin and to the Court of Appeals, where he was unsuccessful.
But then he got to the Superior Court of Justice, which
agreed with him
"because the code is very clear in that sense," he said.
Article 358 of the Chubut Code of Criminal Procedure refers to the terms and indicates in paragraph 4 that "when the duration of the debate is less than thirty days, the maximum period of deliberation will
be extended to five days and that of passing judgment, to ten
".
During the entire process, DAH
remained at liberty
because it was considered that there was no danger of escape nor the possibility of hindering the investigation, two of the aspects that are taken into account when evaluating the need for preventive detention.
They must repeat the trial
The lawyer Gabalachis recalled that "this is not the only case that occurred in Chubut due to very similar circumstances," and referred to
the conviction that a religious received
.
This is the case of the evangelical pastor SF, from El Maitén - a small town in the Chubut mountain range - who was sentenced last year to serve
14 years in prison for raping his stepdaughter
.
The procedure was questioned by the same formalities and the trial for "excessive suspension of the process" must be repeated.
In that case, it was argued that "the guilty verdict was handed down on March 17, 2020, while the full reading of the sentence was completed on August 10 of the same year, that is,
almost five months later,
" they said. the magistrates when ordering a new trial.
When justifying the delays that make serious sentences fail due to formalities, the
procedural difficulties
produced by the coronavirus pandemic
were argued
.
But the justification does not conform to the specialists.
"We are not talking about the trial itself, which is carried out with the protocols, as appropriate, but about the time that goes
from the moment of the verdict until the sentence is handed down
, passing through the caesura hearing," they explained to the news agency
Telelam
penalists consulted.
In addition, they warn that "the focus of the central protagonists of these terrible stories, who are
the victims
,
should not be lost
, who due to delays in the system to which they are unrelated, will have to face another trial."
With information from Télam.
LGP
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