Uruguay: they investigate the prosecutor of Sexual Crimes who ordered to file 300 cases in a few days

According to the prosecutor himself, this amount would have been archived since May 9, the date he took office

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The Uruguayan prosecutor specialized in Sexual Crimes, Raúl Iglesias, publicly reported having filed 300 cases in less than two weeks of work and the Attorney General’s Office ordered an investigation.

At the beginning of May, the prosecutor for Sexual Offenses, Sylvia Lovesio, left her post and, by order of the prosecutor of the Juan Gómez Court, Raúl Iglesias, the then prosecutor for Violence against Gender, who happened to occupy it. According to Gómez on Universal radio, the change was due to a request from Lovesio because she was too shocked after seeing such difficult cases for a long period of time.

This is how Iglesias began to work in a prosecutor’s office with more cases than the previous one, an aspect that required a change in his workflow at the same time that he gave prominence to his opposition profile within the Prosecutor’s Office. As reported by El Observador , Iglesias was the leader of an alternative current within the Association of Prosecutors and repeatedly criticized the management of former court prosecutor Jorge Díaz, as well as that of the current one, Juan Gómez.

Days ago, Iglesias declared on Telenochethat she would request the house arrest of three defendants for a group rape that occurred in January, when the former prosecutor had requested the prison – granted in the first instance and ratified in an appeals court. Additionally, she reported filing about 300 cases since she took office on May 9. According to the prosecutor specialized in Sexual Crimes, prison is a “last ratio” measure that, considering the distance between the alleged aggressors and the alleged victim, is not necessary at this time, published El Observador.

In this context and after different repercussions, Court prosecutor Juan Gómez ordered an investigation “because there is some difference in the number of cases handled publicly” and the number which was handled by the agency, reported the court prosecutor in statements to Underlined.

“Out of respect for the people who make a complaint, it would always be convenient for a prosecutor to investigate what is being denounced”, said the court prosecutor. “ We have requested a report from public policies to know exactly how many and on what grounds they were effectively archived “, he stated.

Gómez was also asked about how many prosecutors he considers necessary to take charge of all the crimes and he replied that, “thinking of a Rendering of Accounts, the minimum idea of ​​​​the Prosecutor’s Office would speak of 15 more prosecutors, especially in the interior of the country.” Meanwhile, he declared that “the Attorney General’s Office intends and is looking for a way for the vast majority of the complaints to be considered by the prosecutors.”

Iglesias also referred to the filed cases : “The vast majority had more than two years without being consulted, without being open to see what the case was. I don’t know why they investigate me“, he pointed. In addition, he stated that if no progress was made in these investigations, it was because the victims and witnesses could not be found, or the evidence had disappeared.

Juan Raúl Williman, the defense attorney for The alleged rape victim said on Radio Sarandí that he was summoned to the Prosecutor’s Office by Prosecutor Gómez to find out her situation. In that conversation, the cases of filed sexual crimes were discussed and, in this context, Williman presented a brief indicating “some duties that were not fulfilled,” according to El País. “We did not file a complaint against Iglesias, but rather a document to talk about the care of the victim,” the lawyer told the same outlet.

According to what prosecutor Gómez told El Observador, Williman contacted him to express his “concern” about Iglesias’s announcement and let him know that this fact had “destabilized” the victim. Meanwhile, Iglesias considered the situation as a violation of his technical independence as a prosecutor, which, according to the regulations, he should enjoy in all the causes that concern him,

The Feminist Intersocial also met with Court Prosecutor Juan Gómez to talk about what happened. One of the people present at the meeting, Valeria Caggiano, told La Diaria the concern they are going through: “There is an impact that we cannot measure on other possible victims and the process they face in the Justice . We are concerned that this acts as a disincentive for victims to access Justice.”