José Alperovitch was sentenced to 16 years in prison for sexually abusing his niece and will remain in custody

Slouching in a chair, shoulders hunched and flashing glances beckoning, Joseph Alperovitch He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for sexually abusing his niece, who worked under him while he was a senator. Judge Juan Ramos Padilla He ordered that he be immediately arrested and sent to jail. An investigation was also ordered against the three people who had testified in the trial for giving false testimony.

The three-time governor of Tucumán heard the sentence with his eyes closed, his head bowed and his hands clenched: the judge concluded by stating that he was responsible for simple sexual abuse repeated on three occasions, two of which were attempted and six other acts committed with carnal access, through intimidation, abuse of a relationship of dependency, power and authority.

“Go ahead, commissioner,” said the judge. Alperovitch did not look at anyone. He stood up and put on his coat while his children hugged him and said goodbye. Reporters asked him if he had anything to say. But he said nothing.

Oral and public debates against the former governor of Tucumán began on February 5, where He was tried for a total of nine offences of attempted molestation, simple molestation, and aggravated molestation with physical access. 15 hearings were held and about 70 witnesses and experts participated. This Tuesday Alperovitch denied Have your last words before the verdict and Judge Juan Martín Ramos Padilla set the time for tonight at 8 p.m. after the fourth intermission,

However, at the beginning of the trial he defended himself: “I know everybody will say the same thing, but I want to tell you, Mr. Judge, that I am 68 years old, I have 11 grandchildren, 4 children… I want the truth because this is what killed me. With all the respect I have for the judiciary, I want the truth and I request you Mr. Judge, if you can, or the prosecutor, to look at all the evidence. He always had his children with him.

According to the investigation, the victim, 35 years younger than the accused, in addition to being his niece, worked for him in the electoral political campaign that tried to move him for a fourth time to the governorship of Tucumán in the 2019 elections. The crimes took place Between 14 December 2017 and 26 March 2018 in the cities of San Miguel de Tucumán and Yerba Buena, and in an apartment in Alperovich’s Buenos Aires neighborhood of Puerto Madero, at the time he occupied a seat in the national Senate.

The witnesses called by the judge included various relatives of the complainant, such as her parents and grandmother, as well as friends and former colleagues. During the time FL worked for the then National Senator, everyone realized his infamous physical, mental and emotional decline,

On the other hand, three witnesses were on the verge of going to jail for having turned hostile or given false testimony at the request of the prosecution. Manuel Frias, who worked as a waiter for the leader; Victor Hugo Decataldo, a transport businessman who also had a romantic relationship with the accused’s daughter Sara; and David Cayetta, the former driver of the former provincial president. With regard to them, the judge decided to wait for the moment of sentencing.

According to the complainants, the “approaches”, “touchings” and “inappropriate situations” occurred in an apartment of the accused in Puerto Madero; in his private car while they were traveling to visit the interior of Tucumán within the framework of a conversion campaign to compete Juan Manzur to run for governor in 2019; in the Alperovitch bunker on Martín Fierro Street in the provincial capital and in two villas in the city of Yerba Buena.

During the entire hearing, Carolina Cimram And Pablo Rovattithe members of the complaint denounced: “José Jorge Alperovich is the author of all the events (…) that occurred in different houses located both in this city and in San Miguel de Tucumán and the vehicle of Alperovich to commit them, The accused exploited his enormous power at the workplace, family and political levels across the province..He had been elected governor three times and, at the time of the incidents, was a national senator and ad hoc adviser for the province.

In tune, representatives of the public ministry, Sandro Abraldesexpressed: “This trial is a trial of the impunity of power,” and specified: “José Alperović was always located at the top, in a position of extensive power, and FL at the very bottom, in a sphere of subordination. According to him, when the accused saw the complainant (for the first time, at a political event), he decided he should include her in his team because her physical beauty had a great impact on him. “I didn’t want her to work with him, I wanted her to sleep with me.”

On the other end, The defense denied the existence of all the facts and supported the theory of “armed cause”. To do this, he raised doubts about the financing of the parade, which appeared a day after the letter that the complainant published in November 2019 accusing her other uncle of abuse. These posters, he said, were seen in Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Tucumán and linked the accused to the actor. Juan Darthes. In this context he pointed against the current national vice president Carlos CisnerosRecognized political rival of the former governor in his province.

In this regard, the complaint responded: “Alperovich said that all this is a big lie, that he has not done anything he is accused of, that it is also a false complaint implicated in a dirty campaign prepared by the national deputy -Carlos Cisneros, his alleged lifelong enemy, and the former councilor of San Miguel de Tucumán and former partner of the alleged victim- David Mizrahi. (…) None of this is credible or plausible: it doesn’t make any sense.”

FL’s father is José Alperovitch’s first cousin. As he said in his statement, they had a “lifelong relationship, starting from playing together in childhood.” “My father was the brother of his mother, Marta Alperovitch. “My father was José Alperovitch’s godfather,” he said.

“I lived with Jose for many years, not only as a cousin since 2003, when his political history began. I told him I was going with him because he is his cousin and because I love him and want him to do well. And it went very well. Then time passed, 2010, he was no longer Jose: he had a different look, a different posture, another attitude. I don’t know, head, strength,” he said and added: “If you want to know a person, give them powerand you’ll realize who it is. I didn’t know Jose had a mental illness.”

When telling him about his daughter’s complaint, he recalled: “One morning, I don’t remember the date exactly, my daughter sat me down in a cafe in Yerba Buena, after watching the prologue for a while, emotionally unstable, very thin, she said to me ‘Dad, I have to be with you.’ There she told me, ‘What happened to me happened to me.’ It’s hard for me to say that, I’m a father. After that I started smoking again after five years.”

“Dad, he harassed me. “Dad, he raped me,” he explained when asked to tell him the details of that conversation in 2019. “What do you mean he raped you, if he is my cousin? There I told him not to tell me anything more than that. The bullet had already hit me… That’s where my fight began. I had two options, and you who are parents will understand me. Luckily I chose the better option. Because if not, I would not be here today, I would be in jail,” he said.

As a family member, he also said Sarah Alperovitchformer provincial legislator and the third daughter of the accused former president out of four. According to her story, during the time the complainant worked with the former governor, a friendly relationship developed between them, to the point that the young woman began to tell her about a couple who used gender violence against her. “I was worried about FL, I told him that he would continue to get sick if he continued with her. I told him that I had to do therapy, that the same thing happened to me… She looked thin and thin,” and added, ”From February-2019 – until she resigned – the complainant – was very bad and I knew that it was because of gender violence and the abuse that the man inflicted on her.”

“How did you know about the version of abuse?” Prosecutor Abralde asked him. “We had already lost the election. In November, hey coincidence, she denounces the same day of violence against women. It was all a great campaign against us. I needed to attract attention,” the former provincial legislator replied.

Former senator also announced Beatriz Mirkinwho was a deputy, senator and candidate for lieutenant governor as Alperovich’s running mate in 2019. Her figure generated controversy because she promoted a feminist agenda within Tucumán Peronism: as a national senator in 2018 she voted in favor of the IVE law while Alperovich did against it.

“I have no doubt that this was a well-planned campaign to influence politically and personally, not only the murdered Alperovitch, but also me,” Mirkin said and added: “I have no doubt, although I cannot prove it: there was a political campaign of the opposition led by Carlos Cisneros.”