A local court finds agents responsible for sedition during the December 2013 turmoil
Seventeen provincial police officers were convicted yesterday by a local court in Entre Ríos province for having confined themselves to their barracks between December 8 and 9, 2013 to demand a pay hike The police strike took place amid cases of looting. Judges found officers responsible for looting, sedition and robbery.
The Concordia Oral Court yesterday delivered the verdict against the police officers who in December 2013 took over the police department in the middle of an uprising. During those violent days, three people were killed and several shops were looted.
Officers José María Biderbost, Carlos Daniel Zaragoza and Manuel Leandro Coutinho were sentenced to four and a half years in prison and they were also banned from serving in the police for nine years. Police officers Juan Manuel Rosas, Daniel Eduardo Chávez, Diego Federico Differding, Luis Alberto Gómez, Juan Pedro Lacuadra and Alfredo Horacio Imaz were also sentenced to four years, according to information published by local news portal Junio.
The court presided over by Judges Jorge Barbagelata, Silvina Gallo and Darío Perroud issued the verdict yesterday but will be revealing the grounds of their decision next week.
During the trial, prosecutor Mario Guerrero said the suspects “took over the Concordia police department on December 8, 2013, inciting looting.” According to Guerrero, they threw tear gas and entered the offices of their superiors.
Guerrero also said that the officers had planned and organized the take over of the department. He also explained to the court that the agents also prevented the police cars from leaving the police station, which could explain why officers did not intervene when looting started.
According to the prosecutor, some criminals were told in advance by officers that the security service was going to be put on ice. Guerrero also accused them of using violence to extort the provincial authorities. For her part, Entre Ríos Attorney Cecilia Goyeneche accused them of being responsible of a situation of institutional gravity.
Entre Ríos Governor Sergio Urribarri admitted that he had to reach an agreement with the officers who were holding the uprising amid an increasingly extortive situation and to prevent a blood-bath.
When the situation was under control, the governor backpedalled with the pay rise agreed with the officers during the mutinies.
In Concordia, there are more than 100 people charged with looting. Several police officers were dismissed following the protest that took place in December 2013.
An Entre Ríos court has already sentenced to three years to a couple who participated in the looting in the first verdict implicating civilians in the December 2013 crisis.
At the national level
The police protest started in Córdoba province, but was replicated in other provinces. Reports indicate that 13 people were killed during those days when the country commemorated the 30th anniversary of the return to democracy.
Córdoba was also the first province to hold a trial for the looting, sitting two civilians in the dock in 2014.
Criminal investigations are also making progress in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires province, where prosecutor Pablo Larriera requested to summons of seven police officers to be questioned as suspects. In Chaco province, 99 people are being probed for their role in the December 2013 crisis. In that province a commission to investigate these crimes was created at the request from Attorney General Alejandra Gils Carbó.
On December 10, when mutinies were still in progress, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said it was necessary to democratize police forces, but the national government has not promoted any bill to modernize the security forces so far.
A law to punish policemen who leave their posts without reason was passed last year. The bill was tabled by Aníbal Fernández last year while he was serving as a senator of the ruling Victory Front (FpV), days after looting broke out nationwide.
Herald Staff
Source: Buenos Aires Herald