Global Courant 2023-04-12 03:20:03
After 8 years of paperwork and naps in too many drawers, the trial jury against prosecutor San Isidro Claudio Scapolan (52) entered the final stretch: this Tuesday the allegations of the prosecution and defense were heard.
If he is confirmed in his position or is dismissed for “bad performance” it will only be known on Monday, with the verdict of the Jury for the Trial of Buenos Aires Magistrates and Officials, chaired by Dr. Ana María Bourimborde.
With witnesses of all kinds, the jury lasted just three days: it started on Tuesday, March 28, and concluded on Thursday, March 30. In the hearings, there were from drug traffickers who told how the police officers under the command of Scapolan looted them to a “narco-repentant” federal police officer ” who turned around and claimed to have been pressured by judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado and prosecutor Fernando Domínguez to testify against the San Isidro prosecutor.
For the latter, according to what Scapolan said at the hearing, he has already filed a complaint for alleged “aggravated coercion” in the Federal Justice of La Plata. The same witness was charged with false testimony by the prosecution.
Claudio Scapolan on the first day of the trial jury held in the Annex of the Buenos Aires Senate, in La Plata. Photo Mauricio Nievas
At the time of the allegations, both the attorney general of Pergamino Mario Gómez (chosen for the task of prosecuting by the Court Prosecutor Julio Conte Grand) as well as Scapolan’s defender, Luciano Locatelli, and the defendant himself displayed their arguments before the jury members. The first requested the dismissal, the second, the acquittal.
“In this trial, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, victims and repentants declared that they referred to the irregular conduct of Dr. Scapolán. In the proceedings directed by the prosecutor Scapolan, crimes were committed so serious that they concluded with the annulment of the causes,” the trial began. prosecutor Gómez who recalled that in a jury both crimes and misdemeanors are grounds for dismissal.
Referring to the “Anacona” case known as “Leones Blancos” (the assembly of an operation in which the police stole half a ton of cocaine), the prosecution explained that the Federal Court of Appeals of San Martín maintained the prosecution of Scapolan for “ideological falsehood “, because he knew that the call with which he started everything had been invented. And he stressed that the Chamber itself did not dismiss him, but instead found him lacking in merit as head of an illegal association dedicated to extortion and the preparation of cases.
“What is up to society if those who must prosecute crimes not only commit them but also plan and execute them,” added Gomez, who spoke for an hour and placed special emphasis on the fact that all the accused cases -which he described one by one- they are related to drug traffickers.
Scapolan’s turn
After a quarter intermission, the defense began and the first to speak was Scapolan himself, who began by criticizing prosecutor Gómez, whom he accused of reading the plea and using evidence that had not been produced in the debate.
The impeachment trial is to decide whether Scapolan can continue to be a prosecutor or not. Photo Mauricio Nievas
The defendant’s main darts were against Arroyo Salgado (“contradictory”), the prosecutor Fernando Domínguez (“he could not affirm anything”) and the plaintiff in the case against him, the lawyer Damian Odetti (“when testifying, he had a typical behavior of the drug use”).
Scapolan spoke for more than an hour, defending his work in each of the disputed cases, but he was not so blunt when talking about the policemen who used to work for him: “Do the Police commit irregularities? And, yes, they commit irregularities. When we can We detected it,” he said.
After Scapolan, his lawyer spoke, which was briefer. He directly said that his client demonstrated “the non-existence of facts. There are no proven facts. Only speculation and conjectures. Evidence?: none.” Locatelli treated Arroyo Salgado arrogantly: “Arroyo Salgado said ‘things happened as I say’. He did not seek the truth and that is very serious.”
Who is prosecutor Scapolan
Scapolan was, for years, the strong man of the resigned attorney general Julio Novo, close to massismo. Novo today awaits an oral trial, accused of protecting drug traffickers.
Scapolan and his defense attorney Luciano Locatelli. Photo Mauricio Nievas
On February 23, after many comings and goings and after almost all possible Buenos Aires judges excused themselves from intervening in the case, the Jury for Prosecution decided to set a date for the jury on March 28.
The decision was almost unanimous. Only legislator Sofía Vannelli (Frente de Todos) voted in dissent, a reference to massismo, a sector from which Scapolan and his former boss, former attorney general Julio Novo, always received support.
Although for the moment the accusations in the Justice against Scapolan were (via the Chamber) reduced to a firm prosecution for “falsification of a public instrument”, the jury arrives accused of the conducts for which at the time the judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado asked that they remove him they went to stop him.
Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado was the one who asked that Scapolan’s privileges be removed. Photo Mauricio Nievas
In the jury, Scapolan is identified as the head of a gang made up of police officers, court officials and lawyers dedicated to extortion, the arming of operatives and the resale of drugs seized in anti-drug proceedings.
The attorney of the Buenos Aires Court, Julio Conte Grand, accused him of all this, based on the evidence gathered in a file that originally began in 2016 with a complaint from the deputy Elisa “Lilita” Carrió.
Added to this denunciation – which was dormant for years – was the investigation carried out by the federal prosecutor of San Isidro Fernando Domínguez and the judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, the latter finally removed from the file by order of the Federal Chamber of San Martín.
In December of last year, the Jury for the Prosecution of Officials and Magistrates of the Province of Buenos Aires – chaired by Judge Ana María Bourimborde – decided to suspend Scapolan and start the path towards his political trial.
The jury chaired by Judge Ana María Bourimborde. Photo Mauricio Nievas
The prosecutor was automatically left with a garnishment of 40 percent of his salary. But more importantly: he missed the opportunity to resign from his position to stop his possible removal.
Since the criminal proceedings against him began, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, 32 people – including drug traffickers, lawyers and police officers – have been prosecuted and are currently waiting for the Federal Oral Court No. 1 of San Isidro to set a date for an oral and public trial.
Now, after the allegations of this Tuesday, the days begin to run for the jury to decide something as simple and as complex as whether Claudio Scapolan stays or leaves Justice.
That is what the president of the jury Ana María Bourimborde, Senator Juan Pablo Allan (Together), Deputy Daniel Andrés Lipovetzky (Together), Deputy Walter Carusso (Espacio Abierto Together), Senator Sofía Vanneli (Renewal Front -All) should think about. and Deputy María Eugenia Brizzi (Together) and co-lawyers Drs. Carlos Fernando Valdez, Hector Benito Mendoza Peña, Carlos Garavaglia, José Manuel Del Cerro and Juan Emilio Spinelli.
MG