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(CNN Spanish) - The Argentine Justice issued sentences between 18 and 45 years in prison for the three defendants in the first trial for sexual abuse at the Provolo Institute. The case presented the complaints of more than 20 deaf minors against two priests and a school gardener and boarding school in the province of Mendoza, bordering Chile.
The three defendants were sentenced for aggravated sexual abuse with carnal access, simple sexual abuse and corruption of minors.
The former director of the institute, the priest Nicolás Corradi (83), was sentenced to 42 years in prison for five acts, according to the sentence read on Monday. Corradi is serving house arrest due to his advanced age and several health problems.
Another priest, Horacio Hugo Corbacho (59), received the greatest sentence handed down by the court in this case: 45 years in prison, for 13 facts. Gardener Armando Gómez (49) was sentenced to 18 years for two acts. Both Corbacho and Gómez are being held in a Mendoza prison.
The three refused to provide their version of the facts before the judges of the case.
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The Prosecutor's Office had accused the three defendants for 28 facts but the court allowed them to be tried for 25, a source of the trial confirmed to CNN. They were finally convicted of 20 facts.
The inspector of Provolo, Bishop Alberto Bochatey, told CNN that the intervention ordered by the Vatican in the institute - following the allegations - will wait to see the sentence to pronounce. Still, Bochatey expressed his solidarity with the victims.
The Prosecutor's Office maintains that, between 2005 and 2015, the Provolo de Mendoza would have become the center of a circuit of systematic abuse against minors. The school and boarding school housed children from 4 to 17 years old. The complainants are alumni who were under the tutelage of Corradi and Corbacho.
"As a Church, we want to convey once again our solidarity and closeness to the victims and their families," said the Archbishop of Mendoza in a statement. "What these people have told has horrified the entire Mendoza society," the paper adds. “We have all felt baffled and hurt,” he continues, adding: “Together with the whole society we feel challenged to continue working to prevent these situations from recurring.”
The complainants' lawyers had requested between 15 and 50 years in prison - maximum penalty for these crimes - for the three accused.
The sentenced
CNN contacted the official defense of the accused, but in the office of his lawyer they informed that there will be no declarations at the moment.
Neither Gomez nor Corradi have demonstrated during the investigation or trial. During the beginning of the case, Corbacho said he was innocent, but did not testify at the hearings. In her first part of the allegation, the defender pointed to alleged nullities in the investigation and questioned the testimonies of the denouncing alumni, two sources present during the hearing confirmed to CNN.
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This is the first trial in the Provolo case. The Prosecutor's Office advances in a future trial against eight other defendants, including a nun and seven laymen who performed administrative tasks in the Provolo de Mendoza and who are accused of not having denounced the facts, a source from the court confirmed to CNN.
A trial against the nun Kumiko Kosaka is also pending, said to be the one who selected and delivered the children to the accused, and then be abused. In addition, she is accused of sexual abuse. He pleads not guilty of all charges.
Background
The case came to light in 2016, but CNN was able to confirm in the files that the first complaints in Mendoza date from 2006 and 2008. They were made by students of reserved identity. Those complaints were not investigated then and the abuses would have been extended until 2015, according to the accusation.
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Suspicions about Provolo date back to the 60s and 70s, in Verona, Italy, the main headquarters of the institute. The Vatican closed an internal investigation in which it determined that only one of the accused was guilty. In the 70s, Corradi was transferred to Argentina. It appears in the list of those indicated by Italian alumni.
Both Corradi and other members of this school, which depends on the Catholic Congregation of Provolo, are also investigated in the city of La Plata, about 60 kilometers from Buenos Aires. Corradi and another defendant also failed to express their accusations at this headquarters. The lawyer of the third defendant, an administrative employee of the school, maintains that the crimes have already been prescribed. They happened in the 80s and 90s.
In Mendoza, there are already four convicted. Jorge Luis Bordón, Provolo warden, pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual abuse in 2018 and received 10 years in prison, the minimum penalty for such crimes in Mendoza.
Sexual abuse Sexual abuse in the Church Sexual abuse by priests Case Provolo Victims
