José Alperovich
(68) put on a white shirt.
He waited, still, in front of his computer camera, for the sixth hearing in the
sexual abuse trial
that has him in the dock.
The former governor and former senator from Tucumán drank mate, smoked and listened, as usual.
He only witnessed the first hearing and the rest listened to them sitting in an office in his home.
At times, some people entered and left the room, bringing him mates or cigarettes.
He settled again and again in his chair and listened.
Thursday's witnesses were psychologists and psychiatrists who interviewed the victim and the accused.
Alperovich's defense is headed by Augusto Garrido, a member of the
Cúneo Libarona law firm
(Mariano Cúneo Libarona left the defense when he became Minister of Justice of the Nation), and he is accompanied by Ariel Sosa from Tucumán and Mercedes Rodríguez Goyena.
Curiously, the three lawyers were joined by
a psychologist
who provided support to the defense in carrying out the interrogations and asking questions to the experts.
The testimony of the experts
The first to testify was Eduardo Spector, psychiatrist (MN 71322), forensic examiner and professor of the Chair of Forensic Psychiatry at the Maimónides University.
His statement was extensive but did not provide many specific details regarding the results.
Spector conducted two virtual interviews with José Alperovich and prepared a report prepared by the expert witness and presented by the defense.
Spector asserted "for my taste, for my knowledge, the pain due to the loss of power
due to the denunciation
may have been overstated."
And he clarified: "In general, when one loses power, more than an adaptive disorder, one can have a
depressive condition
. Here what was seen, in addition to depression, is the issue of anxiety based on the complaint that was made against him and what could happen in the future.
This is how Alperovich continues the trial hearings for abusing his niece.
Photo Luciano Thieberger
He also said that "no indicators have been detected of being an individual who does not need to subjugate others" and denied that he could be described as a "dictator" personality.
The psychiatrist stated several times that he did not conduct an expert opinion but rather a preliminary report.
In addition, he studied the entire file to do it.
That is why in his report he questioned the victim, the expert reports carried out on the young woman and the lack of "avoidant behavior", such as resigning from his previous job to continue working with Alperovich in the campaign that left him out of the governorship in 2019. .
Why does the defense point to psychological expertise and place so much emphasis on this aspect?
The strategy of the lawyers to counter the accusation of the prosecution, led by Sandro Abraldes, and the complaint, in the hands of Carolina Cymerman, Pablo Rovatti and Esteban Galli, is to
divert the evidence compatible with sexual abuse
and the witnesses who stated that they had witnessed the physical and emotional deterioration of the victim during the period in which he worked with his father's cousin.
For them, as was clear with the testimony of Alperovich's daughter, Sara, and the then candidate for vice governor of Tucumán, Beatriz Mirkin.
According to her statements, the young woman was in a relationship - at that time - with David Mizrahi, a Tucumán councilor who joined the political space with Alperovich but who later moved to that of the current governor, Osvaldo Jaldo.
Always according to her version and with a clear intention to favor Alperovich, she was a victim of gender violence in that relationship and that is why she had begun a serious physical and emotional deterioration during 2017 and 2018.
In the same sense, they questioned Mónica Masculino de Herrán, an expert from the Forensic Medical Corps of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
The psychologist was repeatedly questioned for not having performed a so-called "Minessota" test on the victim.
"If I hadn't stayed standing, he wouldn't have groped me," the expert recalled about one of the young woman's testimonies.
Regarding her relationship with David Mizrah, "she classified it as a good relationship at the beginning but that he took a very patriarchal attitude, with the intention of her being at home and not working, which is why they had had disagreements and ended the relationship."
However, she considered that "there were absolutely no signs compatible with that dysfunctional relationship" and that she did not find signs of "victimization in the sphere of sexuality" as she did find in reference to Alperovich.
Furthermore, the professional highlighted Tucumán as "deeply patriarchal where the male figure is very very strong" and that if "the figure and projection of a person in her province and in her country is added, I think it is very important compared to a young girl who had just started working.
In the same way, he considered an aggravating circumstance to specify the abuses of the trust placed in the alleged aggressor, which was linked to a question of familiarity" and highlighted: "he also had no possibility of reaction or defense."
The complaint
The accusation against Alperovich made at the end of 2019, the abuses and attacks judged occurred between December 14, 2017 and March 26, 2018, in the towns of San Miguel de Tucumán and Yerba Buena;
and in an apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Puerto Madero.
The National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor's Office 10 of the Federal Capital intervened in the investigation of the case, temporarily headed by prosecutor Santiago Vismara, and the Specialized Prosecutor's Unit for Violence against Women (UFEM), directed by Mariela Labozzetta.
In May 2022, the Prosecutor's Office had considered that "in all cases, mediating intimidation for his commission", the former senator "abused a relationship of dependency, power and authority."
MG