José Alperovich at a press conference in San Miguel de Tucumán, in 2019.
José Alperovich, one of the best-known and most powerful Peronist politicians in northern Argentina, has been prosecuted this Wednesday for the sexual abuse of a niece.
Alperovich ruled the province of Tucumán with an iron fist during the 12 years of Kirchnerism and later retained important territorial power as a senator.
In 2019, the complaint for which he has just been prosecuted forced him to move away from the political front line.
The complainant assured at that time that he suffered "sexual, physical and psychological violence" by his uncle for a year and a half, when he was a legislator and she advised him.
After listening to Alperovich, 67, the national criminal and correctional court in Buenos Aires has decided to move forward with the case.
Alperovich, who had been summoned to testify three times, appeared ten days ago by videoconference before Judge Osvaldo Rappa.
For an hour and a half, he tried to convince him that the complaint against him was false and was part of a conspiracy to "exclude him from the political scene."
His testimony did not convince the magistrate, who has prosecuted him for the alleged crime of simple sexual abuse repeated three times against the complainant.
Rappa has also ordered an embargo on Alperovich's assets for 2.5 million pesos (about $21,000).
The influential leader, who has a declared fortune of more than 2,100 million pesos (about 17.5 million dollars), will now await provisional release for the start of the trial.
This morning I complied with the court order, and I appeared to testify before Judge Osvaldo Rappa, within the framework of the complaint against me.
Declare for more than an hour and a half,
– José Alperovich (@JAlperovichOk) April 20, 2022
Alperovich's niece keeps her identity confidential, but has given details about the complaint and the court case through public letters.
"I didn't want him to kiss me.
She did the same.
I didn't want him to touch me.
She did the same.
I didn't want him to penetrate me.
He did the same.
Immobilized and paralyzed, looking at the rooms, waiting for everything to end, for time to run, ”the complainant wrote in a document with which she accompanied the criminal complaint in 2019.
From Miami, where he was on vacation, the Peronist denied all the accusations but announced that he was taking leave to dedicate all his efforts "to destroying infamy and clarifying the truth."
A year later, Alperovich's niece published a new letter to demand speed from Justice.
“I keep waiting, day by day, for answers, serious investigations, measures, justice.
And meanwhile, I look around me and notice that neither the horror that I have lived through, nor the hells that thousands of women and girls go through are enough for them to deal with the causes with the responsibility and due diligence they deserve.
It alerts me and scares me, because they are killing us,” she warned.
In that letter, she denounced that during the year and a half in which she suffered abuse, her uncle had her cornered: "He oscillated freely and comfortably in the three scenarios before which I positioned myself: family, work and the horror of the intimacy that forced me to live with him.”
The plaintiff's lawyer has anticipated that he will request 15 years in prison against Alperovich, the maximum penalty contemplated for the crime of which he is accused.
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