The trial of Eva Analia “Higui” De Jesús began this Tuesday in a small courtroom in San Martín. The hearing took place without being broadcast and no media was allowed to access the room. Thus, while the debate was taking place within the framework of hermetism, at the door “Higui” she was accompanied by feminist and LGBT+ organizations. The protesters interrupted traffic to demand the acquittal of the accused for the crime of simple homicide for defending herself against gang rape.
“In there I don't know how I'm holding up, but I go outside and you give me confidence. But it's screwed up because (the aggressors) are all good today, but if I had been the one killed, nothing would have happened, it would have been taken as something normal,” Higui said at the exit on open radio.
An hour and a half late, judges Gustavo Varvello, Germán Saint Martin and Julián Descalzo of the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) No. 7 of San Martín began the trial on Tuesday at noon.
In this way, the first of the four scheduled hearings took place, in which, in addition to the parts and relatives of the victim, Cristian Espósito (28), there were two officials from the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity of the Nation — the Undersecretaries for Diversity Policies, Greta Pena; and the Comprehensive Approach to Gender-based Violence, Laurana Malacalza -; a group of women's ministry officials in the province of Buenos Aires and the militant Adriana Carrasco.
“There is a lot of interest in knowing what can happen when you defend yourself against a group attack by heterocisgender males. Let's hope that Justice will be done, although the road will be quite hard and we have already had some aggressions due to lack of relatives,” Higui's lawyer told the news agency Télam before entering the room with only 16 seats enabled.
When Higui entered the San Martín Courts, just before the trial began, a group of Esposito's relatives, including his mother, shouted at him: “Murderer!” .
Eva Analia De Jesús, better known by the nickname she earned for her goalkeeper skills “Higui”, in reference to the popular Colombian goalkeeper René Higuita, came to the bench of those accused of murdering one of the three men who attacked her on October 16, 2016, in Lomas de Mariló, where she had gone to visit her sister for the Day of the Mother.
That day, while walking through the neighborhood of the Buenos Aires town of Bella Vista, a group of 10 men from the neighborhood, who used to harass her because of her sexual orientation, attacked her.
“Higui” said that her attackers beat her, broke her clothes and tried to abuse her. “I'm going to make you feel like a woman, you're a lesbian,” she recalls how Cristian Rubén Esposito told her, the moment she pulled a knife and stuck it in her chest, before becoming unconscious. She woke up, she said, when a group of troops pointed a flashlight at her, handcuffed her and held her for the murder.
After spending eight months in prison, and thanks to a strong campaign and mobilization of various social organizations, the San Martín Chamber of Appeals granted him extraordinary release from prison and Higui was released in June 2017.
That situation could be reversed if the judges of TOC No. 7 of San Martín find her guilty at the end of the oral proceedings, which in addition to today's hearing, will have another three days on March 16, 17 and 22, during which 30 witnesses are expected to testify, none in her favor.
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