The prosecutor for Sexual Offenses, Alicia Ghioni, requested the advance declaration of the victims as soon as the parliamentary privileges of the nationalist senator were revoked.
The Senator’s Complainants Gustavo Penades They will testify in the case under extreme secrecy and their identities will not be revealed, with the exception of the militant of the National Party, Romina Celeste, who was the first to point out the nationalist as an alleged sexual exploiter of minors.
As soon as the impeachment of Penadés was made official, the prosecutor of Sex Offenses in charge of the cause Alicia Ghione, asked that the victims and complainants be summoned urgently in order to move forward with the investigation. The objective is to obtain statements in court as soon as possible —it is estimated that the hearings will take place in a month— so that protect identity of these people.
With this modality, the declarations will be in Gesell Chamberso that the judge of guarantees marcela vargas listen to the statements live without directly seeing the victims who denounced Penadés —recently raised to nine. Likewise, it will be sought that even the building to which the defense of the accused goes —the senator, on the one hand, and the professor Sebastian Mauvezinindicated for being the link with minors, on the other – is different from the one used for reserved audiences, to reduce the chances of them being found.
The importance of this instance of declaration lies in the fact that, up to now, what the nine victims declared before the Prosecutor’s Office is not valid in a trial; for this, everything said must be ratified in front of the judgesomething that is only possible from the moment that Penadés’ parliamentary privileges were removed.
What can happen to the cause?
Based on the statements of all the people involved, three alternatives can be given: on the one hand, that the investigation be archive or that, otherwise, a abbreviated agreement between the parties in the event that Penadés assumes the blame for the crimes of sexual exploitation of minors in exchange for a sentence with a lower sentence —which can be up to a third of the sentence established for this type of crime.
The third option is for the case to be elevated to oral trial, where the nine victims must testify again. However, this does not usually happen before one year has elapsed since the imputation of the person —in this case, the nationalist senator—; and the term can even be further extended if the prosecution requests an extension to investigate.
Due to the importance of the statements of the victims in this type of case, the prosecutor Ghione requested the advance declaration.
Source: Ambito
