Trial for the death of Matías Chirino: six of the nine accused soldiers were convicted

The Oral Federal Criminal Court of Corrientes convicted six of the nine accused of abandoning a person in competition with abuse of authority for the death of Matías Chirino, the young soldier from Córdoba who died after the “welcome ritual” performed by his companions in a battalion of the Argentine Army in Passed of the Free.

The captains Rubén Darío Ruiz, Claudio Andrés Luna and Hugo Reclus Martín Tárragalieutenant Exequiel Emanuel Aguilarfirst lieutenant Darío Emanuel Martínez and the second lieutenant Luis Facundo Acosta were sentenced to 8 years in prison for the crime of “abandonment of a person in competition with abuse of authority”.

For its part, Gerardo Sebastián Bautista, Franco Damián Grupico and Claudia Daniela Cayata They were acquitted. Bautista arrived at the trial imprisoned accused of being a co-author of homicide, while the rest never went to prison.

However, none of the nine defendants were convicted of murderdespite the fact that the Corrientes Attorney General’s Office headed by Carlos Schaefer had demanded 20 years of effective prison for seven of the former soldiers.

Throughout eight hearings began last October 8 before the court made up of Víctor Alonso, Fermín Ceroleni and Juan Manuel Iglesias, 31 witnesses testified.

However, after the verdict is known, the reasons will be made public on December 5.

The death of Matías Chirino

The event occurred in 2022, when Chirino, along with other incoming rookies, had been subjected by their superiors to a “baptism” marked by mistreatment and excess consumption of alcohol and food.

According to the victim’s relatives, he was thrown into a pool drunk, slept wet on a mat and collapsed, drowning from his own vomit. For this reason, he was transferred to the San José hospital in the Corrientes town. There, according to the forensic result, he died from “food aspiration.”

The second lieutenant’s father, at that time, gave details of when they called him by phone to notify him of what had happened: “‘Are you the father of Matías Chirino? Come on, your son died.’ Thus, with absolute coldness.”