Virginia Messi
02/16/2021 9:53 AM
Clarín.com
Police
Updated 02/16/2021 9:54 AM
There are court decisions that open new ways.
And this seems to be the case of the 2016 page ruling that was signed in Federal Court No. 3 of Morón on February 11, within the framework of file 70252/2019.
In the case, opened against those responsible for the Philadelphia Temple, the leadership of the sect is accused of exploiting its faithful.
The victims worked in three bakeries of the sect every day, a minimum of 12 hours, without any salary and under the constant threat of being punished if they did not sell all the merchandise or if they ate some of what they carried in their hawker baskets .
"In the event of there being a shortage in the money or of having ingested any of the products, reproaches were formulated in which
they were made to know, in front of everyone, that they had failed God
, marking them as thieves, also giving physical punishment. for this reason, working hours used to be extended until the seller was able to market all the merchandise, "the ruling remarks.
Labor exploitation is the main accusation in the file in which some 100 victims have already been identified, although more and more are added each week.
The case also includes allegations of sexual abuse in religious rituals, kidnapping of minors and even an episode of possible instigation to the suicide of a young man who was tormented after he commented that he was gay.
Juliet (27), victim of the Philadelphia Temple.
In the February 11 resolution, in addition to prosecuting
15 leaders of the sect
for a shocking range of crimes
, the surrogate judge Elpidio Portocarrero Tezanos Pinto set an embargo of 750 million pesos: 50 million per head.
What is unprecedented is not so much the amount of the embargo (which is very important) but how the calculation was made to compensate the victims.
For the first time in a cause of trafficking for the purposes of labor exploitation, it was taken into account what the enslaved faithful lost from earning in wages in all the time they were working for free and in terrible conditions for the Philadelphia Temple.
Something like the figure of lost profits in labor laws.
"It was understood for the preliminary calculation of the sums of money that would have to compensate the victims of the case (...) the salary that would have corresponded to them to obtain if instead of being exploited they had worked freely and in accordance with labor laws", says the resolution.
In the ruling, mention is made of a first embargo of 23 million per head issued by the Morón investigating court, which was the first that began with the investigation and then passed it to the federal jurisdiction.
And he considered that initial figure insufficient because "the calculation carried out did not take into account the extension of the working day (which reached 12 hours) nor were overtime, rest or vacations not taken into account."
The sect of terror
Judge Tezanos Pinto inherited an investigation carried out by his colleague Néstor Barral (who rose to the position of chambermaid in 2020), his secretary Mariana Sioli and a front of very experienced prosecutors: Santiago Marquevich and those responsible for Protex: Marcelo Colombo and María Alejandra Mangano.
The history of the Filadelfia Temple - born in San Justo - dates back to the 70s when it was
founded by the sisters Divina Luz and Eva Petrona Pereyra
.
For their faithful - almost always vulnerable families - they were the messengers of God and therefore everything they said and ordered was out of the question.
When Divina Luz died in 1998, she was succeeded by her daughter, Adriana del Valle Carranza, who was accused in this case but also died, in 2019.
Raid on the Philadelphia temple, in La Matanza.
They investigate violations, kidnapping, reduction to servitude and humiliation.
The complaint against the temple, made by Julieta Coria, a young woman whose mother entered the cult in the 2000 crisis with her six children, began in 2018 in the provincial Justice promoted by the plaintiff lawyer Mariana Barbitta.
"Everything hurts: the fact that they have taken your opportunities, that they have taken your freedom.
Without my realizing it they took a part of my life from me
, years that do not return ... not having studied, not having friends" Julieta (27) told
Clarin
in an interview carried out last December.
She was 8 years old when she entered Philadelphia.
The case began in the ordinary courts but quickly became federal when the testimonies began to speak of human trafficking between the various centers of the temple in Salta, Tucumán, Mendoza, Neuquén, Bahía Blanca and even in Paraguay.
Eva Petrona (76) was arrested and is currently under house arrest at the home of one of her followers and accompanied by one of her faithful.
Azucena, a 52-year-old woman who sleeps at the foot of her bed in case she needs anything.
Azucena knows no other life than that of the Temple since, very young, Eva brought her from Tucuman after convincing her mother.
The goods that he was buying with the fruit of the slave labor of his followers include
apartments, cars and fields.
All are frozen by order of Justice.
For now, a fleet of 10 cars has already been made available to the State for sale.
The money will be deposited in a fixed term, renewable every 30 days, pending the final judgment of the case.
This is only the beginning: the list of properties and accounts on which the General Directorate for Asset Recovery and Forfeiture of Assets of the Procurations works is long.
In addition, in the federal court of Morón, the investigation entered a new stage: that of money laundering, which promises new surprises about the assets of the leaders of the Philadelphia Temple.
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