05/28/2021 11:41 AM
Clarín.com
Police
Updated 05/28/2021 11:43 AM
"He was grateful for being able to be present at the trial, he said that he did his duty and that he hopes that the court will be enlightened to give a verdict." Fernando Soto, lawyer for Luis Chocobar (34), the Buenos Aires policeman who is on trial accused of shooting to death a criminal who stabbed an American tourist in 2017 in the La Boca neighborhood, told what his client said before the Court Oral de Menores (TOM) 2 when he made use of his right to express the "last words", a formalism prior to the reading of the verdict, which will be known this Friday at 15 in Comodoro Py.
Regarding his view of the situation, Soto reiterated: "I have no doubt that they will acquit him."
The policeman, for his part, chose not to make statements to the press, although last night, on his Twitter account, he wrote:
"I complied with the law. I did my duty."
Meanwhile Soto added before entering the judicial headquarters: "I am going to tell you what the prosecutor said:
in no way are we facing a case of an easy trigger
, it is not an instant death penalty, it is not an extrajudicial execution, for nothing?.
For the lawyer, Chocobar "was defending himself against someone who had previously stabbed a person my age 12 times that just pushing him would have been enough" and he recalled that the stabbed tourist himself, Frank Wolek (57), asked "please the court to acquit Chocobar for having fulfilled his duty "and for having saved him.
Thank you for so much support.
Thank you @Doctor_Soto for defending me with such affection and with such professionalism.
I complied with the law. I did my duty.
pic.twitter.com/vW6l4Sqlo3
- Oscar Chocobar (@ OscarChocobar1) May 28, 2021
The lawyer also commented that the aggravated homicide for having been committed by a police officer with abuse of his functions, a crime for which the complaint of the family of the dead thief,
Juan Pablo Kukoc (18)
, requested life imprisonment for the policeman, it is a figure that "for someone who decidedly and intentionally wants to kill."
He recalled that both the investigating judge, the prosecutor who brought him to trial and the Crime Chamber agreed that Chocobar "in no way had the intention to kill."
The lawyer also stressed the importance of the shots being fired "in the turn" and "on the right flank" of Kukoc, because according to his hypothesis, Chocobar fired because "he had to defend himself from an attack."
"I told the court, for three years five months and today 20 days, we were watching calmly sitting at the desks as the witnesses testified, the videos, analyzing how (Chocobar) acted, and he had three minutes from the event until Kukoc fell, three seconds since he made the shots in the air and the shots in the corner. In those hundredths of seconds he had to decide, "added Soto.
Finally, he said that "despite being with adrenaline shot, with palpitations at full speed and with the natural fear of having someone who wants to kill
him
,
he shot down and that is allowed by law.
He was repelling a attack".
With information from Télam
GL
Look also
The trial against police officer Luis Chocobar comes to an end: the three possible scenarios
Luis Chocobar, two days after the verdict: "I acted as I had to act, as I was taught"