Causa n° 13.607
Keywords
Procedural Information
1st Instance:
Tribunal Oral en lo Criminal Federal de Posadas (Federal Criminal Court of Posadas)
Posadas
The defendants were considered guilty for the crime of trafficking in person.
2nd Instance:
Cámara Federal de Casación Penal (Federal Court of Criminal Appeal)
Buenos Aires
27/06/2011
The Appeal Court rejected the appeal filled by the defense and upheld the sentence.
Victims / Plaintiffs in the first instance
Defendants / Respondents in the first instance
Fact Summary
It has been proved that in July 2008, the defendant E. M. traveled to Buenos Aires for working purposes, she then called her daughter F., 16 years old, who lived in a city called Puerto Iguazu, and invited her to move to Buenos Aires to work as a babysitter.
In August of that same year, F. traveled to Buenos Aires, with all expenses paid by E. M., and was received at the Buenos Aires bus Terminal by E. M., another girl named J. -19 year old- and by M. F. A. After her arrival, she was transferred to a brothel nearby. In the brothel they met a woman called V., the owner of the establishment, who harbored them for 4 or 5 days. Men were coming in and out the brothel at difference hours to have sex with the women there, including the defendant E. M.
The defendants E. M. and V.kept saying the victim F. that if she wanted money she would have to work for it. Also all men who called to the brothel were offered a new girl called 'Luciana', 19, referring to F, for sex.
The defendant M. F. A. attempted to sexually abuse the victim F. because her mother E. M. offered her to him saying that he could have sex with her because F. has sex for free with boyfriends in her hometown anyways. However F. cried a lot so M. F. A. transferred her to his apartment two blocks away from the brothel, where he abused her sexually. Later A and F. went to a Hotel in the city of Cordoba where he continued the abuse for about a week. On August 29th, 2008 the defendant M. F. A. returned to Buenos Aires with the victim where she started to work as a waitress in his own bar. There F. asked several times with E. M. for money to go back to Puerto Iguazu.
On September 10th, 2008, F. returns to Puerto Iguazu and on September 14th, E. M. and M. F. A. arrived in Puerto Iguazu. He presented himself as E. M,’s friend and boss. A week later the defendants returned to Buenos Aires but this time with two others minors, C, 14 years old and M., 11 years old.
Then, in late September 2008, M. F. A. returns again to Puerto Iguazu, settling in the house of Mr. E. H. I. (father of the two minors) and went to house of F’s boyfriend, inviting her to go to Spain to work. She refuses, so M. F. A. then began to threaten her and chase her.
Charges / Claims / Decisions
Articles 12, 29 subsections 3, 45 and article 145 ter, subsection 1 y 4 of the Criminal Code.
The conviction regarding the crime of trafficking in persons is very well-substantiated, since all gathered evidences are enough to give sufficient support to the attribution of liability such as the testimony of the victim, which is composed of several texts that are collected by different people in different roles, and in all of them there is consistency, spontaneity and accuracy of the data provided. Thus all the evidences presented before Court deviates from the explanations given by the defendants.
The discussion whether the defendant and another persons were part of the same society, either if he or the last were the owners of the brothel, are insubstantial to the effects of the crime attributed, since on article 145 of the Criminal Code (crime of human trafficking) does not require that the author is the one who gets the direct benefits of exploitation.
Since the victim, at the time of being captured, was fifteen years old, within a complex living structure characterized by extreme poverty, a troubled family environment, plus the abandonment and lack of paternal-maternal protection, it can be concluded that these circumstances made her especially vulnerable. Her own mother worsened the situation with the false promise of a job as babysitter, which constituted the recruitment of the minor.
It has been proved the participation of the defendant in the stage of depersonalization of the victim, which is one of the characteristics often found in this type of crime, the defendant used violence in order to break her resistance to prostitution and alternated this with sexual abuse with a perverse system of seduction including a range of advantages, pleasures, promises and access to narcotics.
The article 145 of the Criminal Code typifies also a short-outcome crime, which does not require the consummation of the crime by verification the actual exploitation of the victim, but the agent acting for that purpose.
2nd instance:
The Appeal Court asserted that all the gathered evidences during the trial in the first instance give sufficient support to the attribution of the defendant’s responsibility.
For the Appeal Court in the case of the victims F. and M., it has been proved that they were all minors and that the defendants actively participated at the reception of them, and at the so called stage of “depersonalization” of the victims.
When victim F. was captured, she was fifteen years old, and lived in a complex structure characterized by extreme poverty, a troubled family environment, abandonment and lack paternal-maternal of protection, all of which made her especially vulnerable. Her mother worsened the situation with the false promise of a job as babysitter, leading F. to a brothel in the province of Buenos Aires and then under the control of the defendant.
The defendant subjected the victim to a violent environment, in order to break her resistance to prostitution and alternated this with sexual abuse with a perverse seduction system that including a range of advantages, pleasures, promises and access to narcotics
Consistently with the above, there are phone calls between the bar and brothel which makes clear the offer of sexual services and through wiretapping it was possible to verify the insertion of the minors into a sexual exploitation circuit. All the evidence presented to the first instance trial showed the various services offered in the brothel such as gambling, use of narcotic substances and the use of minors for sexual purposes.
The Court of appeal rejected the appeal filed by the defendants and sent the case back to the Court of first instance.
Article 12,29 inc. 3°, 45 and Article 145 ter, incisos 1 y 4 of the Penal Code
The conviction regarding the crime of trafficking in persons is very well-substantiated, since all gathered evidences are enough to give sufficient support to the attribution of liability such as the testimony of the victim, which is composed of several texts that are collected by different people in different roles, and in all of them there is consistency, spontaneity and accuracy of the data provided. Thus all the evidences presented before Court deviates from the explanations given by the defendants.
The discussion whether the defendant and another persons were part of the same society, either if he or the last were the owners of the brothel, are insubstantial to the effects of the crime attributed, since on article 145 of the Criminal Code (crime of human trafficking) does not require that the author is the one who gets the direct benefits of exploitation.
Since the victim, at the time of being captured, was fifteen years old, within a complex living structure characterized by extreme poverty, a troubled family environment, plus the abandonment and lack of paternal-maternal protection, it can be concluded that these circumstances made her especially vulnerable. Her own mother worsened the situation with the false promise of a job as babysitter, which constituted the recruitment of the minor.
It has been proved the participation of the defendant in the stage of depersonalization of the victim, which is one of the characteristics often found in this type of crime, the defendant used violence in order to break her resistance to prostitution and alternated this with sexual abuse with a perverse system of seduction including a range of advantages, pleasures, promises and access to narcotics.
The article 145 of the Criminal Code typifies also a short-outcome crime, which does not require the consummation of the crime by verification the actual exploitation of the victim, but the agent acting for that purpose.
2nd instance:
The Appeal Court asserted that all the gathered evidences during the trial in the first instance give sufficient support to the attribution of the defendant’s responsibility.
For the Appeal Court in the case of the victims F. and M., it has been proved that they were all minors and that the defendants actively participated at the reception of them, and at the so called stage of “depersonalization” of the victims.
When victim F. was captured, she was fifteen years old, and lived in a complex structure characterized by extreme poverty, a troubled family environment, abandonment and lack paternal-maternal of protection, all of which made her especially vulnerable. Her mother worsened the situation with the false promise of a job as babysitter, leading F. to a brothel in the province of Buenos Aires and then under the control of the defendant.
The defendant subjected the victim to a violent environment, in order to break her resistance to prostitution and alternated this with sexual abuse with a perverse seduction system that including a range of advantages, pleasures, promises and access to narcotics
Consistently with the above, there are phone calls between the bar and brothel which makes clear the offer of sexual services and through wiretapping it was possible to verify the insertion of the minors into a sexual exploitation circuit. All the evidence presented to the first instance trial showed the various services offered in the brothel such as gambling, use of narcotic substances and the use of minors for sexual purposes.
The Court of appeal rejected the appeal filed by the defendants and sent the case back to the Court of first instance.
Sources / Citations
Judgment -Causa 13.607
Database of UFASE (Unidad Fiscal de Asistencia en Secuestros Extorsivos y Trata de Personas), Ministerio Publico Fiscal, Republica Argentina