The Center for ex-combatants of the Malvinas Islands of La Plata (CECIM) asked the special rapporteur on torture of the United Nations (UN), Nils Melzer, to issue a ruling given the delay of the Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina in defining the case in which former Argentine soldiers are being investigated for alleged torture against soldiers from their own troops, during the Malvinas war conflict in 1982.

The case is being processed in the Federal Court of Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, by Dr. Mariel Borruto . But since the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether the facts investigated are crimes against humanity or not, it is to say whether they are imprescriptible or not, has been completely stopped for a year. According to the lawyers of the organization of ex-combatants, plaintiffs in the case that began in 2007, such a 15-year delay clearly "re-victimizes the tortured soldiers."

The proposal formulates the case that the unjustifiable delay in making a procedural decision, and so many others throughout the process, could be understood as the de facto implementation of “biological justice” , based on the natural gradual death of complainants and accused. The CECIM lawyers, Jerónimo Guerrero Iraola and Laurentina Alonso, highlight the fact that the delay in the case produces the “revulneration of the rights of those who were victims of torture.” Due to this circumstance, it was decided to require the intervention of international organizations. In addition , also ask the UN rapporteur to define and communicate to the Argentine State that the practices and actions of the Judiciary could make it responsible for violations of human rights, and subject to interpellation by the international community.

The investigation dates back to 2007 when the then Undersecretary of Human Rights of Corrientes, Pablo Vassel , gathered the first 25 cases of alleged torture and presented the complaint in the Federal Court of Río Grande. Judge Borruto ruled on repeated occasions about the stabbings and burials of ex-combatants as imprescriptible illicit acts, because they are against humanity.In fact, in February 2020, he prosecuted four accused former soldiers, Miguel Ángel Garde, Belisario Gustavo Affranchino Rumi, Gustavo Adolfo Calderini and Eduardo Luis Gassino , in a ruling partially confirmed by the Federal Court of Appeals of Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut.

Por Agenda Malvinas