The harsh words of Carlos Carrascosa about his years in prison 2:56
(CNN Spanish) ––
Last Friday, justice acquitted Nicolás Pachelo, the main defendant in the trial for the death of María Marta García Belsunce.
Pachelo, a former neighbor of the victim, was tried for "aggravated robbery for having been committed through the use of a firearm – suitable for shooting – in a real competition with homicide
criminis causae
aggravated by the use of a firearm."
The basis of the court ruling was the lack of sufficient certainty.
In statements to the press, the prosecutors stated that they are against this decision.
Almost 20 years after the crime, the trial, which took place since July, sought to answer the question that still keeps Argentina in suspense: who killed María Marta García Belsunce?
In dialogue with CNN, the victim's widower shared his reaction.
"Falsifying evidence led to my conviction. So, in my head it does not fit that when there is true evidence, against false evidence, I am acquitted. There is a notable difference between what I had to experience and what happened on Friday, "explained Carrascosa .
Crime of García Belsunce: Nicolás Pachelo is acquitted 7:26
From Pachelo's defense, in charge of the lawyers Roberto Ribas and Marcelo Rodríguez Jordán, they assure that his client had nothing to do with the death of García Belsunce.
“María Marta died, but not at the hands of Nicolás Pachelo.
Pachelo never entered that house.
But I don't say that, Pachelo doesn't say it.
The investigation has said so," said Ribas in the opening guidelines of the trial.
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The first prosecutor to investigate the facts accused Carlos Carrascosa of the crime.
In 2009, he was convicted as a co-perpetrator of the homicide and was detained in a prison until 2015, before serving house arrest until 2016, when a new ruling by the Buenos Aires Court of Cassation annulled the conviction and acquitted him.
In December 2020, the Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina upheld that acquittal, also on the grounds of the lack of evidentiary certainty.
As Carrascosa explains, Justice "needed a culprit."
"That is the great truth of all this. Nobody wants to say 'we were wrong,'" he said.
The crime of María Marta García Belsunce: why is a new trial being held 20 years after her death?
After the verdict that acquitted Pachelo, Carrascosa was in contact with García Belsunce's family and said that they share their view of the case.
As he explained to CNN, the sentence will be appealed.
"If I did not believe that there could be justice, I would not make the appeal. And if not? There is divine justice, which is the only justice in this country. Because, whether you like it or not, it is interpreted by men and men are wrong," adds Carrascosa .
The accusation against the widower of María Marta Belsunce was not the only one that the family considers wrong. In 2011, a second trial had Guillermo Bártoli, the victim's brother-in-law, in the dock;
Horacio García Belsunce, her brother;
Juan Carlos Hurtig, half brother of María Marta;
the doctor Juan Ramón Gauvry Gordon, Sergio Binello, a neighbor of the Carmel country club, and Beatriz Michellini, a masseur who attended the victim.
All received convictions for allegedly covering up the crime, except the masseuse.
Bártoli died in 2014, while Gavuvry Gordon was acquitted in 2015. María Marta's brother and half-brother, like the neighbor Binello, were dismissed in 2020 when the Justice considered the criminal action extinguished due to the prescription of the case.
However, García Belsunce's family pointed to Pachelo as a suspect in the murder from the beginning.
After the ruling that acquitted the ex-neighbor, Carrascosa points out: "It is so difficult to explain this to someone. Because in all this, ultimately, nobody remembers the victim. This is a lack of respect for the victim."
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