A federal court has published the grounds for the ruling that condemned former Tucumán Province governor José Alperovich to 16 years in jail and a lifetime ban from holding political office.
The ruling, published by Federal Judge Juan María Ramos Padilla, concludes that the veteran Peronist politician is a flight risk following his conviction for the rape, sexual abuse and attempted sexual abuse of his former private secretary.
Back in June, Alperovich, 69, was found guilty of six counts of rape, three counts of sexual abuse and two counts of attempted sexual abuse, all occurring between 2017 and 2018.
The veteran Peronist, who led his native province for 12 years, serving three terms as governor from 2003 to 2015, was also disqualified from holding public office.
Announcing the verdict, Federal Judge Alejo Ramos Padilla said the crimes involved "intimidation, abuse of a relationship of dependence, power and authority.”
In the grounds for the ruling, published last Friday, the magistrate details serious sexual abuse, mistreatment and highlights the “degradation” suffered by the victim.
Ramos Padilla cites the victim’s "detailed" account of the events, which were supported by expert physical and psychological opinions and other testimonies.
The judge criticised Alperovich's abuses, which were "directly related to the aggressor's methodology to paralyse and objectify the victim.”
He highlights aggravating factors such as “degradation, asymmetry of power, age difference, political, social and economic power, mistreatment, contempt, attacks on self-esteem and, finally, serious sexual abuse."
He added: "Alperovich criticised the victim's body, telling her that she was fat … among other things and subjected her to improper situations, as happened after the first incident, when he left her money, so that she interpreted it as a kind of compensation which, at the same time, undermined her self-esteem."
Referring to the effects of the abuse on the victim, Ramos Padilla detailed that she lost weight, lost hair, had split fingernails, exhibited a severe state of anguish, trembled and cried.
“I cannot overlook the exploitation of this situation by Alperovich. Because based on the trust he placed in the victim both at work and in his family, he betrayed that bond of affinity,” wrote the judge.
Ramos Padilla also revealed that the veteran Peronist had "tried to avoid criminal proceedings by offering money or any other kind of advantage.”
He said Alperovich had denied the allegations, “blaming his victim, placing her as a member of an illegitimate plot to harm him, and trying to reverse the roles between the assaulted and the aggressor.”
Alperovich is being held in the Ezeiza prison, though he defence team has requested that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation review his pre-trial detention situation.
Defence lawyer Augusto Garrido says that Alperovich's health has deteriorated and should be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest.
The judge had to weigh up the risk of the ex-governor absconding if he regains his freedom, given he has the economic resources to do so.
Ramos Padilla, however, considered that there is a risk of Alperovich absconding.
Alperovich’s victim – identified during the trial as 'M.F.L.' – has been commonly referred to as his niece, though the relationship is closer to a first cousin once removed.
The plaintiff was employed as his private secretary during the period in which the abuse took place.
According to the victim, the first unwanted advance took place in Buenos Aires at the end of 2017, shortly after she began working as an advisor to the Tucumán ex-governor, who by then was a senator.
Alperovich travelled regularly with the victim from his home province to the capital and back. Of the nine alleged acts, two took place in the flat used by Alperovich in Puerto Madero. The most serious offences occurred in March 2018 in Tucumán Province, according to the victim, in San Miguel de Tucumán and Yerba Buena.
The victim filed her criminal complaint in November 2019 and published an open letter setting out her reasons for pressing charges.
"I am not writing to convince anyone of anything. I am here against the oppression of silence and because of the need to recover my life, to heal by calling things as they are, without softening them, giving the monster a name and a surname. When you don't give it a name, it doesn't exist,” she wrote.
– TIMES/NA
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