FNX Magokiler Posted July 12, 2023 Share Posted July 12, 2023 Three police officers were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Lucas González, a 17-year-old boy, a “racial hate” homicide. An emblematic case of institutional violence in Argentina. Officers Gabriel Isassi, Fabián López and Juan José Nieva were convicted of the 2021 murder of Lucas González, a teenager who lived on the outskirts of Buenos Aires and was together with three friends after training at a soccer club in the capital. Six other officers were sentenced to between four and eight years for covering up. The conviction was for "quintuplely aggravated homicide, for being premeditated, with treachery, for racial hatred and abuse of functions" and for attempted homicide of the other three young people who were with the victim, according to the sentence. “They stigmatized them because they were “morochos” (mestizos), because they came from a villa, from a deprived neighborhood, but they came out to train. They saw them, they waited for them, they tortured me, they burned his body with cigarettes, they riddled him with bullets," Lucas's father, Héctor González, declared before entering the court. Among the eleven accused of tampering with evidence, five were acquitted. Of the six officers convicted, three are commissioners and one deputy commissioner who received sentences of six years in prison and 10-year disqualification for concealment. While two officers were sentenced to four years for concealment and eight years for torture, respectively. “Historical” ruling for Argentina “It is a historic sentence for Argentina, so that there will never be cases like Lucas González again. We have achieved that the victims and their parents are considered victims of institutional violence. It is historic because we have never heard convictions for institutional violence due to racial hatred before,” the plaintiff lawyer Gregorio Dalbón told the press, citing the sentence, the grounds of which will be known on August 23. The youngsters had gone to try on at the Barracas Central club from Florencio Varela, in the southern periphery, in the car of the father of one of them. Joaquin Gomez was driving. When they stopped at a kiosk to buy a drink, an unidentified police car approached them and the youths believed they were criminals, so they got scared and sped up to escape. They were shot from the other car. Lucas González received two bullets to the head and died hours later in the hospital. More complaints against the Police are announced One of the friends managed to escape and was saved. The other two were thrown to the ground, handcuffed, kicked and arrested. Police said there had been a confrontation and "planted" a toy gun in their car, as was proven during the trial. “It was very sad, I had to lose a friend in front of me. We are soccer players, nothing more. We went to buy a juice. They came down to kill us. They didn't yell anything. They threw me to the ground, they beat me, they told me that he was a black 'villero' and that they would have to shoot me in the head like my friend, "said Joaquín Gómez. Before hearing the verdict on Tuesday, police officer Angel Arévalos, who was acquitted, denounced that the city's police chief, Gustavo Breard, pressured police officers and their relatives not to talk about the case. The complainants announced that they will initiate actions against the police authorities. https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/mundo/2023/07/11/historica-condena-por-crimen-de-odio-racial-en-argentina/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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