The Federal Chamber of Comodoro Rivadavia rejected a proposal to “nullify” a request for investigation and detention of a former military chief accused of torturing soldiers during the Malvinas War.
Chamberlains Javier Leal de Ibarra and Aldo Suárez rejected the defense request of Second Lieutenant Juan Nazer, former Section Chief of Company A of the 4th Infantry Regiment.
The federal prosecutor of Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Marcelo Rapoport , and his colleague from the Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes against Humanity, María Ángeles Ramos , requested the investigation and preventive detention of Nazer, accusing him of the crime of “imposition of torture” against the soldier Rubén Ascencio .
In August last year, prosecutors requested the investigation of Nazer and others accused of torturing soldiers, but the situation is still pending resolution.
Regarding Asencio 's situation, the opinion explains that "during his entire stay in the Islands he suffered from hunger, lost around 20 kilos and remained in a well outdoors at the mercy of low temperatures, rain and snow."
"In relation to the clothing, which was inadequate, it was also insufficient, not having changes of clothes for replacement, the boots got wet and their socks and feet remained wet all the time," the document adds.
The opinion describes that "around noon, around May 18 (1982) in Monte Harriet - where his section was stationed -, Corporal Gilberto Aguirre wanted to arbitrarily impose a sanction on him and ordered him to make live movements. Given his refusal "The corporal took out his weapon, hit him in the chest and ordered him to be staked, searching for an area of the ground with a stone that stuck in Ascencio's back, increasing his suffering."
“The soldier remained tied hand and foot, unprotected, on that stone. Several superiors were aware of this.(…) At the time of the events, Nazer was serving, with the rank of Second Lieutenant, as Section Chief of Company A.”
Nazer – the document adds – “is named by Ascencio as the one who ordered his staking.”
The prosecutors requested that Nazer “be called to give an investigative statement because sufficient evidence has been gathered to allow us to affirm, with the degree of certainty required in this instance, that he must respond as the direct perpetrator for the crimes of infliction of torture.”
Nazer proposed the annulment of the accusation, but the Chamber of Comodoro Rivadavia rejected that proposal and, belatedly, cleared one more of the obstacles to the trial of military commanders accused of torturing soldiers during the Malvinas war.
The prosecutors' opinion also refutes the statute of limitations claims of several of the defendants due to the passage of time.
“The evolution of international human rights law has led to individual acts of special significance being included in the category of serious human rights violations, even when these do not occur in contexts of massive or systematic attacks,” they justified.
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