A new verdict for crimes against humanity that took place in Mar del Plata It will arrive this afternoon, after the Federal Oral Court of that seaside resort hears what the seven defendants have or wish to say before hearing the sentences that correspond to them. The defendants Emilio Nani, Carlos Suárez, Rubén Fernández, Carlos Milanese, Julio Irizzarr, Juan Ramón Goicoechea and Enrique Capella, all retired soldiers from the Army – the last six, members of the Intelligence of the force within the Defense Artillery Groups Air 601 and 602, and of the ADA 601 Group – were Tried since last February for kidnappings and torture committed against a hundred people during the last civic-military dictatorship. Suárez – the only one of the seven who has a life sentence received in the trial for the first section of the case – Fernández and Milanese also face charges of qualified murder.
The oral and public debate began last February and was led by judges Fernando Machado Pelloni, Héctor Sagretti and María Claudia Morgese Martín, who subrogate the federal oral court of Mar del Plata for this particular trial. The analysis, for nine months, was focused on the operation of the Operations and Intelligence Center (COI) of Subzone 15, where six of the accused were present and whose structure was involved in the human rights violations of more than 100 people. Of those cases, about twenty will receive justice for the first time. Goycocheca did not integrate that structure.
The accused
Most of the seven defendants had been arrested in 2017, by order of the federal court number 3 of Mar del Plata. That first instance considered them responsible for crimes against humanity committed within the framework of State terrorism in the area between the towns of General Lavalle, General Juan Madariaga, Mar Chiquita, Balcarce, General Alvarado, General Pueyrredón, Lobería, Necochea and San Cayetano. Only three went through the trial against humanity in house arrest: Suárez, Fernández and Milanese. Suárez is serving the life sentence he received in March 2020, within the framework of the first tranche of the trial for the crimes in Subzone 15.
The other four were released: Capella, Irizarri and Goicochea were released from prison and Nani released a few months ago. Two other retired soldiers who had been involved in the investigation of the case, Eladio Arias and Hugo Pabón, were left out of the oral debate due to health problems that disabled them to go through the process.
It is expected that from 2:30 p.m., the TOF will enable the microphone of the last hearing so that the accused have the possibility to say their last words before receiving the verdict, which will come later.
The request of the prosecutors
During their pleadings, the representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office Laura Mazzaferri, María Eugenia Montero and Julio Darmandrail considered that the defendants Suárez, Fernández and Milanese should be sentenced to life imprisonment. In addition to pointing out them as responsible for the crimes of illicit association, illegal deprivation of liberty, imposition of torture and homicides, the prosecutors considered that they should be punished for sexual abuse, facts that in the request for a trial was considered one more torture, but after the debate it was defined independently.
For Capella, the Public Ministry requested a six-year prison sentence; three for Irizarri and Goicochea and two for Nani. The crimes attributed to them are illicit association and illegal search. The requests for punishment of the complaint from the National Human Rights Secretariat were similar.
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