2023-10-18 21:41:51
The nine accused of sexual abuse once morest hearing-impaired children or for failing to report these events, occurred in the Próvolo Institute of Mendoza, were acquitted today at the end of the oral trial that followed them in the Collegiate Criminal Court 2 of that province for two years.
It is regarding the nuns Kumiko Kosaka and Assumption Martinezas well as former directors and employees of the Institute: Graciela Pascual, Gladys Pinacca, the cook Noemí Paz, Valeska Quintana, Laura Gateán, Cristina Leguiza and the psychologist Cecilia Raffo.
Judges Gabriela Urciuolo, Belén Salido and Belén Renna announced their verdict following more than two years of debate, more than 100 witnesses and some 300 hearings.
During the closing arguments stage, the defenders had requested the acquittal of the nuns and the other defendants, while the prosecution and the complaint had requested sentences of 3 to 18 years in prison.
The hearing took place in the facilities of the court located in the Criminal Judicial Pole, in the city of Mendoza, where this third trial for the so-called “Próvolo Case” took place, which began on May 3, 2021.
The Collegiate Criminal Court 2 of Mendoza announced its decision following the defendants made use of their right to say their last words before the ruling was announced.
Próvolo Cause: the previous trials
This is how the “second mega-trial” for sexual abuse once morest deaf children from the former Antonio Próvolo institute in this province came to an end.. After two and a half years of debate, with almost 400 hearings and a hundred testimonies, The court determined the responsibilities of five former directors and nuns of the school, who were mainly accused of covering up, facilitating or failing to report the harassment committed by priests and staff. of the establishment.
In reality, this is the third Próvolo trial, since the first was an abbreviated instance in which the altar boy Jorge Bordón, a former administrative employee of the institute, confessed the authorship of the events and received a sentence of 10 years in prison on December 25. September 2018.
The second formal process, known as the “first megatrial,” which ended on November 25, 2019, had harsh and historic sentences for the priests Nicola Corradi, who died last year at the age of 85 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, and Horacio Corbacho, 62, who received the sentence of 45 years in prison; Gardener Armando Gómez, 52, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
“It may be that justice will be done and all these people will pay for all the damage they have done, especially to my daughter,” had said Silvana Sosa, mother of Mayra, a 28-year-old hearing-impaired girl who was allegedly a victim of the nun Kosaka when she was a little girl.
Próvolo Cause: why the third trial was delayed
The delay in the trial was mainly related to the unification of the three cases once morest the nine women originally charged: the nuns Kumiko Kosaka and Asunción Martínez; the former directors and employees of the institute Graciela Pascual, Gladys Pinacca and the cook Noemí Paz.
Excluded from the process, due to withdrawal of the accusation, were the former directors Valeska Quintana, Laura Gateán and Cristina Leguiza, as well as the psychologist Cecilia Raffo. For Kosaka, the Prosecutor’s Office had requested the highest punishment: 25 years in prison and 10 years of disqualification from holding educational and child custody positions.
While for the majority of the rest of the defendants the request for sentences had been 3 to 18 years in prison. The defense of the accused had requested the acquittal of the five women, considering that they are innocent of the charges leveled once morest them.
Originally from the Japanese province of Okasaki-Shi, Kosaka, 48, spent most of the process under house arrest, although in June of last year, when the maximum detention period expired without a sentence, she was released.. The “bad nun,” as the victims of the “Casita de Dios” nicknamed her, was accused of seven acts; among them, having handed over a minor to the priests so that she might be raped, in addition to putting diapers on girls to hide sexual attacks. These situations arise from the first mega-trial, which ended with the historic sentences once morest the priests.
In the case of the other nun, Asunción Martínez, 55, had arrived at the debate accused of being a primary participant in the humiliation suffered by the boys. The woman, also a professional nurse, born in the department of Guayrá, in Paraguay, had been charged with “necessary participation in terms of commission by omission, arising from the violation of the duty of guarantor, the crime of sexual abuse with carnal access in ideal contest with seriously outrageous sexual abuse, aggravated by being committed once morest a minor under 18 years of age, taking advantage of the child’s pre-existing cohabitation situation, in the form of a continuing crime.” The same qualification had been received by cook Noemí del Carmen Paz Torrez, 65 years old.
Meanwhile, the legal representative of the institute, Graciela Pascual, 67, identified by the victims as “the boss” and right-hand woman of Corradi, who was director of the religious establishment, was accused of “omission.” In addition, the former director of Próvolo between 1997 and 2013, Gladys Edith Pinacca Andrade, 68, had been charged as a “secondary participant in terms of commission by omission arising from the violation of the duty of guarantor.”
The Próvolo case came to light on November 25, 2016, following raids on the institute located in the commune of Luján de Cuyo, in which priests and employees of the religious school were detained.. The humiliations once morest hearing-impaired children, which occurred for years since the late 90s, had a correlation in La Plata, where the Argentine headquarters of the Italian entity is located. This place was the first that the now deceased Corradi visited following his arrival in the country, although the Buenos Aires Justice declared years ago the prescription of the case. The priest also accumulated complaints of rape in his native country, in the mother see of Verona.
With information from La Nación
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