The future prison of Elián Angel Valenzuela (23) – better known as L-Ghent – is still uncertain. Only on Monday his lawyer, Alejandro Cipolla, will request his release as part of a package of requests, all aimed at mitigating the accusations against him.
However, this Friday the defense achieved a small victory: the judge of the case authorized, and gave a period of 48 hours, for the musician to be transferred from the Quilmes police station (where he is currently housed) to a section near General Rodríguez, where his family lives.
"We considered that being so far away from his family was an aggravation of the conditions of detention. The judge gave us the reason on this point and possibly already the weekend will be transferred to the West Zone, "Cipolla told Clarín.
In the plans of the defense is to propose the release of L-Ghent, hand in hand with a reclassification of the facts to "simple threats" instead of "illegitimate deprivation of liberty". "We will also request house arrest in a subsidiary way," Cipolla added, promising to provide more evidence to substantiate his position.
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.
Claudia Valenzuela, L-Ghent's mother." They broke all the doors and made a lot of mess." Photo: Télam
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.
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 on Thursday from the Departmental Directorate of Investigations (DDI) of Quilmes where he has been detained for two nights, to the prosecutor's office, located at 315 Balcarce Street in that town. From there he would be transferred in the next 48 hours.
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.
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