Ricardo Russo, the Garrahan pediatrician accused of child pornography, is granted house arrest – 06/09/2019

"The Chamber of Appeals understood that none of the dangers that prosecutor Daniela Dupuy said that my assisted person can escape or hinder the investigation, "Ricardo Izquierdo, a lawyer for Ricardo Russo, the Garrahan pediatrician accused of possession, commercialization and facilitation of child pornography, told Clarín.

Left confirmed that his defendant will leave this Friday night of the Ezeiza prison, where he spent 99 days, and will spend the night at his house in the River neighborhood, where his wife Mina and their two children will wait for him. "We are with the paperwork of rigor, we calculate that it will leave before midnight," he said. Russo will be electronically monitored, although it would have a limited radius to move.

On Friday afternoon, Room III of the Criminal, Contravention and Failure Appeals Chamber, composed of Sergio Delgado and Elizabeth A. Marum, ordered Russo's house prison, "having to observe the obligation not to be absent from your home for compliance with the measure". Both Slim and Marum they understood that Russo can wait at his home for the oral trial. Given the majority, it was not necessary to resort to the third chambermaid, Marcelo Vázquez, who is on leave.

According to prosecutor Dupuy, the oral trial against Russo (which will have a new judge, Dr. Gonzalo Rúa) would take place this year, while for Izquierdo, "the slowness of this jurisdiction is exasperating, I don't think it's this year". Until today the trial is closer to being carried out in 2020.

Further. the Court decided "to order the implementation of a geolocation device, in order to electronically monitor their stay at home and thus ensure the measure imposed. "

This modality constitutes "a morigeration of pretrial detention, since, although the prisoner must remain under arrest, You can do it inside your home, and in the company of your surroundings. In this way, the purposes of the process will be insured, through a measure that is proportionate in order to avoid the realization of procedural risks and that does not imply, in addition, a severance of liberty as large as that which constitutes precautionary imprisonment in a prison establishment, "says a fragment of the House resolution.

"Bathe, comb, perfume and put on a suit, that you sleep in your house tonight"It was the textual phrase that Izquierdo slipped to Russo by telephone." It was very difficult for me to communicate, it is not easy to talk to Russo in the prison, "the lawyer tells this media."He listened to me carefully, gave no expression of joyHe just replied: 'Ah, doctor, what good news, I call him tonight from my house.' Russo is very medical, sober, austere. "

Russo, 57, former head of the Rheumatology and Immunology Service for more than a decade, spent much of his detention at the Ezeiza Penitentiary Hospital, isolated, and he was the prisoner with the greatest restriction to communicate with the outside world, which led to deep depressions. Towards the end of July, Justice relieved strict conditions and they transferred him to a pavilion with others condemned.

For Left, Russo is "an innocent person, who is being investigated for crimes he did not commit. Because the first paragraph of article 128 it is not fulfilled, since Russo had that work material (NdR: photos of naked girls) before 2018, when the law changed, so if he was charged, it could only be done for some type of tenure, but nothing more. " Article of the Criminal Code to which the lawyer refers is the one that establishes a prison sentence of six months to four years for "the one who produces, finances, offers, trades, publishes, facilitates, discloses or distributes, by any means, any representation of a child under 18 dedicated to explicit sexual activities or any representation. "

On March 21, 2018, the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation converted into law the initiative that proposes to punish the possession of child pornography. The rule, which in November 2017 obtained a half sanction in the Senate, modifies article 128 of the Criminal Code and establishes sentences of between three and six years in prison for the crime of simple possession of child pornographic material.

"Russo paid to be a computer ignorant, but did nothing. It did not produce, nor spread, nor commercialize. But he had pornographic material on his computer, "said his lawyer. Russo was detected pornographic material through eMule, a P2P system for sharing files and video that the Federal Police monitored from the Division of Cyber ​​Crimes against Children and Adolescents.

Left wonders what happened to "the overwhelming evidence that the prosecution had" to accuse Russo, "and where is the pedophilia network they had upset, or the 40 cases investigated … and? All they did is do the Russo media case, was like a scapegoat. This was a circus in which Garrahan Hospital consented and hung up, since he said he is worried about the children of his institution. "

Finally, Left left a message. "Before taking the case I was meeting with Russo three hours, I asked him everything, and according to what he told me, I was convinced of his innocence. Today he goes home and doesn't come back in Cana. I have enough elements to consider that Russo did not commit any act of social gravity; yes, perhaps, ethical and moral, but we cannot take what a person does in his private sphere. "

Daniela Dupuy, who led the investigation against pediatrician Russo, said "the resolution of the Chamber of Appeals I was not surprised, it is always predictable, because it was obvious that the defense was going to appeal it. It's house prison, it's finally prison"." I hope there is no obstruction of the investigation or a leak. And if the House said so, that's fine. He will wait at his home for the trial that is missing very, very little … The point is to prepare it well, because that is where their eventual responsibility will be discussed, which is what the prosecution maintains".

ACE