A blow to Fernando Sabag Montiel’s defense: experts confirmed that the weapon was in a condition to fire

The statement before the Federal Oral Court 6 was made by the expert Alejandro Leonard who was part of the investigation into the Bersa.

In a new hearing of the trial investigating the assassination attempt against CFK, the judges of the Court summoned a dozen witnesses who are specialists in ballistics, some of whom were present on the night of the attack and participated in the analysis of the pistol.

The highlight of the day was that it was a hearing that was highly anticipated by the defense since they were seeking to introduce doubts about the effectiveness of the pistol. However, the statement of the specialists was overwhelming. The weapon and the five bullets that were inside the magazine were in perfect condition, that is, They had the capacity to cause damage.

At the same time, expert Leonard stated that they noticed a “abnormal operation due to a worn part called the cartridge lifter in the magazine that did not lift the slide catch”which would explain why the bullet did not exit.

According to Sabag Montiel’s statement in this same trial, on the night of the attack he tried to shoot once, but the bullet did not come out. When he tried to pull the slide to try again, he was intercepted by the militants and could not. The accused denied that the Bersa had been given to him by the other defendant, Gabriel Carrizo, and assured that it was given to him by a neighbor who had died of Covid-19.

The charger

The experts of the PFA ballistics division Leonard, Martin Spotorno and Ezequiel Soria (the first to seize the weapon that Sabag Montiel was carrying) They exhibited a high degree of knowledge on the subject. In response to questions from the parties, they explained in detail the characteristics and operation of the weapon and did so with demonstrations that included handling it during the hearing. The latter caused YouTube to cut off the broadcast that the Court was making live due to the sensitive content of the images.

The objective of these statements was to determine the condition of the weapon – which is more than 40 years old – its traceability and particular technical characteristics. What Fernando Sabag Montiel’s defense – present in the courtroom as every week – sought unsuccessfully was to cast a shadow of doubt on the effectiveness of the weapon, therefore, on the real or not intention of the accused to kill the former vice president.

The strategy of defense attorney María Fernanda López Puleio was to display press photos of the gun and ask the experts if they saw the charger correctly positioned. But the specialists responded that this conclusion could not be drawn from just looking at these photos. That in one of them “it seems that the charger is not at full capacity”. Peri que They recalled that when they seized the weapon the charger was well placedThis was later corroborated by reading the minutes of the night of the attack and the results of the study they themselves carried out.

What Puleiro was looking for was to generate doubts about the most important material evidence in the case, since the defendant’s confession alone is not enough to convict him.

On this point, Judge Adrián Grunberg asked the experts: “Mr. Soria had said before, and he also said recently, that in the image that was shown to him, it seemed that he was not at his full strength. That he could have been a little overexerted.”

“In one of the images from Telam or I don’t know, the ones that were published,” Soria responded.

As the weapon fell to the ground and was later found by the militants, The judge sought to know if the charger could have come out due to the impact.“The question is, in general and this type of weapon in particular and this weapon, if a person who has a weapon on their body, among their clothes, falls onto the floor… could a blow of that type cause the magazine to come out a little? Could it happen?”

Soria replied: “From my experience, which I can also corroborate here with my colleague who did the part about the suitability and mechanical functioning of the weapon to corroborate it specifically… Clearly, violent manipulation, a fall or even poor handling and the conservation of the weapon in any state, as we mentioned there, is a button that is externally visible and accessible. In the event of any manipulation, if… a blow or something outside of normal handling is involved, it can come loose (the magazine).”

For his part, the expert Leonard added: “Is it possible? It is possible that a semi-automatic weapon falls to the ground and the magazine comes out or its catch becomes unstuck. It is possible, but if we are asked specifically about this weapon in certain conditions and at a certain height, we would have to do an expert examination to have a scientific answer.”

The judge wanted to know if the gun’s safety was on.

“In the same vein, another question. Let’s see if I wrote it down wrong, Mr. Soria, if you can correct me. I wrote down that When you saw the gun, you described it as being loaded, with no cartridge in the chamber, with the trigger guard at rest and the slide not pulled back. Is that correct?

– “The hammer was at rest. The hammer was at rest and without the safety on,” Soria clarified.

– “Without safety lock on,” the judge stressed.

– “Yes,” the witness said.

The specialists explained that the expertise included a total of fifty shots.“The more you shoot, the better,” Leonard explained. Which led them to conclude that the Bersa Lusber Model 84, caliber 32 was in working order.