At the door of Moreno's prosecutor's office, a group of fans of Elian Ángel Valenzuela (23), better known as L-Gante, waited attentively. The fences did not allow them, nor their family, to approach the door. From Quilmes the musician was transferred to Moreno where he testified for an hour: without answering questions from the prosecution, he denied having "illegally deprived of freedom" the two victims.
The prosecution has 15 days to decide whether to request prosecution with preventive detention, extendable for 15 more working days. However, Judge Gabriel Castro, of the Court of Guarantees No. 2 of Moreno, has in his hands the final decision.
It is that the defense of the musician, in charge of Alejandro Cipolla, would ask for his release at this time. In the case, he did not request any measure of evidence or present any witnesses to try to support Valenzuela's statement.
Cipolla confirmed that they will request a new statement from one of the complainants (it would be Rosa Passi, who on Wednesday had dinner with L-Gante's mother) before the possibility that in the first exhibition his testimony has been "coerced", as he told Telam. He also anticipated that he will raise before the Justice of Guarantees, in a subsidiary way to the release, the possibility of granting a house arrest to Valenzuela.
The singer of "cumbia 420" is accused of illegitimate deprivation of freedom. AFP Photo
"I found it fine. He asked me for elements to be able to continue making music and he was able to see his family," added the defender.
Sources of the investigation confided to Clarín that L-Gante "denied the facts as they are imputed to him." In addition, he referred to his intentions in the early hours of May 27. "He said that his intention was to take them to his home to 'clarify things' but that he never forced them to get into the vehicle," the sources confided.
What he intends to do with this statement is to throw overboard the most serious accusation against him to reduce the expectation of punishment. It will now be in the hands of the prosecution to find elements to support the cover and the judge to make room or not to the proposals. It could, for example, modify the charge during prosecution or charge him with other crimes.
In the three raids carried out by the Buenos Aires Police, they found three replicas of weapons, or toy guns, according to Claudia, Elián's mother who minimized: "Do you know what they kidnapped? Two toy guns that are from Jamaica (the musician's daughter), a golden revolver and a longer one that the boys play with," he added.
L-Gante was transferred after 5 this morning from the Departmental Directorate of Investigations (DDI) of Quilmes where he has been detained for two nights, to the prosecutor's office, located at Balcarce Street 315 in that town.
The creator of the "Cumbia 420" is accused of illegitimate deprivation of liberty aggravated by the use of a weapon, for having "forced" Rosa Passi to get into his car. And against Gastón Torres, for the same crime, but aggravated because he is a member of the public power.
The fact for which L-Ghent is detained
The complaint was made on May 27 by Gastón Torres, a neighbor of Valenzuela's family and father of friends of the musician, who resides in the Bicentennial neighborhood of General Rodríguez, in the west of the suburb.
That day, at the exit of Moreno's "Rio" bowling alley, there was a fight with several "members of the so-called Mafilia", the group of friends and musicians to which L-Ghent belongs. A series of band that moves in block to accompany it.
After the conflict, the police arrived. One of L-Ghent's friends called him for help and for fear that he would be taken into custody. This is how Torres began to be threatened by Elián Valenzuela. "You messed with 'La Mafilia', you messed with 'La 420', you'll see what's going to happen to you," he reportedly told her.
Always according to the complaint, members of that same group went to his house and assaulted him "physically both him and his family" and then "a white BMW driven by Valenzuela passed, who lowered the glass, pointed a gun at him and forced Torres to get into the car."
A few meters later, a neighbor of the musician, who had participated in the first discussion with L-Ghent's friends, was also intercepted and forced into the same vehicle, according to the complaint.
Torres remained "captive for 23 minutes, until L-Ghent received a call assuring him that his friends had been released by the police and released the victims," said Leonardo Sigal, the lawyer representing the complainants.
Also to two other people who denounced the musician for similar episodes that occurred in 2021 and 2022. Both cases are on trial.
The complaint was recorded by security cameras, by the geolocation of cell phones and by the statements of the police, witnesses and relatives of the victims.
With that evidence, the prosecution requested the arrest of Valenzuela who validated the request and ordered three raids last Tuesday, one of them in sector 1 of the country of the Banco Provincia Club, where the musician was finally arrested.
In the proceedings, the BMW car and L-Ghent's cell phone were seized.
MG
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