Crucial Monday in the abuse complaint against four Vélez players: everything that is known before the victim’s statements

The complaint for alleged sexual abuse against Vélez Sarsfield players Sebastiano Sosa, Abiel Osorio, Brian Cufre AND José Fiorentino from a 24 year old girl will enter a new phase this Monday.

While the attention – and the tension – this Monday is focused on the possibility that, after the Gesell camera to which the victim will be subjected, the arrest of the players is ordered, José Molina, lawyer of Cufré and Osorio, has warned in the last few hours that there are some procedural risks that must be demonstrated for this to happen and that he considers it unlikely that progress will be made in the sense of the rootedness of the accused and the willingness to collaborate in the investigations that they demonstrated.

So far the only measure ordered against the defendants by the Tucumán justice system is the order not to leave the country for 90 days signed by the judge. Lucas Alfredo Taboada.

What happened

On Wednesday 6 March, a journalist from Tucumán reported four Vélez players for sexual abuse to the Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Sexual Integrity I of the province of Tucumán.

The crimes cited above were allegedly committed on the night of March 3 after the match against Atlético Tucumán in room 407 of the Hilton Hotel in the capital of this northern province. The report states that she had been invited by Sosa, with whom she had exchanged contact details on the field after the match, to meet him. When he arrived in the room, she met the other three players: Cufré, Osorio and Florentín.

The young woman, whose identity is preserved, claims to have lost consciousness after drinking two cans of beer and fernet from a Stanley thermos, therefore there is the hypothesis that the drink could also contain a soporific substance. He lay down because he felt bad and it is at this point that the sexual abuse allegedly occurred. When the reporter was able to react, she took some items from the room, such as a t-shirt, she ordered an Uber and went home. Days later, she filed a complaint accompanied by her lawyer, Patricia Neme.

“From the moment he starts drinking fernet he feels sick, he feels dizzy. When she started feeling unwell, they took advantage of this situation and committed this heinous, disastrous and cowardly act between four people and sexually abused her,” the lawyer said.

“He tried to defend himself from the attack, he tried to get them out. He has injuries to his body due to the use of force, from trying to defend himself. When this whole horrible event is over, he realizes it, calls an Uber and goes home. Here there was no consent, no freedom of choice, no will on his part. “I had absolutely no idea that this situation would happen, nor that these rapists would abuse her,” Neme concluded.

The complaint requests a sentence of up to 20 years due to the type of crime committed and its aggravating circumstances.

Key evidence in the case

The clothes worn by the complainant that day are part of the evidence presented for the assessment. In addition to the hotel cameras and the objects in the room, the conversations that the journalist had with Sosa before and after the crime are one of the pieces of evidence that most complicate the Vélez players. They contain the hotel invitation given to him by the Uruguayan goalkeeper.

In the conversation they have after that night, he expresses concerns about his health and complaints about the alleged gang rape which are not denied by the player, even though they would change his role in participating in the crime. As part of the investigation, what we are trying to determine is the intervention and responsibility of each of the individuals involved.

A few hours after the complaint became public, Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield separated the four players following the protocol established for such cases, until the situation is clarified.

What happens this Monday at 10am in the Gesell Chamber will be fundamental to establishing the future of the investigations and the procedural situation of the four players, who are in Tucumán to prepare their defenses.