Claudio Caniggia will be investigated today as part of the complaint against him for alleged rape of Mariana Nannis

Former Argentine football player Claudio Paul Caniggia will be investigated for the first time this Monday, as part of the complaint against alleged rape filed in the Justice by his former wife, Mariana Nannis, an event that would have happened in May 2018 in one of the departments of the Hotel Faena.

Unless there is any change at the last minute, the retired striker, having remembered passing through River Plate and Boca Juniors, must appear in court from 10.00 to give, via Zoom, his statement.

The charge against the former player and the corresponding call for inquiry was issued at the end of February by Prosecutor's Office No. 42, headed by Dr. Carlos Velarde. The 12-page brief, which Infobae was able to access, and submitted by Jorge Rial on Radio 10, describes sexual abuse as reported by his former partner.

“Claudio Paul Caniggia is charged with the event that occurred on May 5, 2018, where he tried to have sexual relations with his then wife, Mariana Belén Nannis Silles, but in response to her refusal he told him 'I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch' and punched her fist on the face,” says the prosecutor's brief.

According to this document, the alleged violation “occurred in the building located in Petrona Eyle Street, department 221 (Faena Hotel residences) “, when the former footballer “climbed on Nannis and inserted his penis into the vagina, against her will”.

After that, the woman told him that she was going to report him, but Caniggia “laughed” and replied that he “was a friend of the 'capo' of the Police”. In addition, I would have strongly threatened her with phrases such as “if you make the complaint your head will roll” and 'if you go out that door I will send you to kill, you bastard”.

Prosecutor Velarde also explained the context in which this situation would have occurred, which allegedly happened after “Caniggia and Nannis withdrew from a wedding party held at the Palermo Racecourse”, from which “they left in a car driven by Caniggia at high speed while discussing with Nannis, by slapping him in one of his hands.”

As for the evaluation of the evidence, in order to reach this charge and summons for inquiry, the prosecutor relies on the statement of the victim and also on the testimony of friends of the complainant, who learned what would have happened.

In fact, specific reference is made in the request for inquiry to the testimony of one of them. This woman testified before the Justice that the victim had shown her, on more than one occasion, bruises on her arms and especially on her wrist, and that her ex-husband was responsible for these injuries. “Although he clarified that he had never seen the aggressions directly,” the letter says.

The same witness even provided some of the phrases that Nannis would have told her about her relationship with Caniggia: “He assaulted her by telling her that she was fat or that she was a crappy old woman,” she said. The witness also narrated that Nannis called her a lot when she was unwell because of this situation.

Another friend of Caniggia's ex-wife, who was with the couple at the wedding held at the Palermo Racecourse, said that that night she called Nannis when she was already at Faena and that she heard in the background: “Bitch, I'm going to kill you”.

In addition, she told Prosecutor Velarde that the next morning, the victim called her “desperate from the bathroom, crying, as if in a nervous breakdown” and that she told her that Caniggia had raped her. She said that after that she went to see her friend at the Faena and that, in fact, she noticed the dark bruises on “legs, arms and calves”.

The prosecution's brief adds a paragraph to explain what the footballer's former partner told her friend that day: “Nannis told her that he had raped her and that he had blown her up,” he added.

In addition to testimonies from victims and witnesses, the prosecutor assessed a report from the Office of Domestic Violence that “values reporting as a long-standing and high-risk situation of gender-based violence, based on a number of indicators. Among them, there is mention of chronicity and tenor of violence, psycho-emotional vulnerability of the complainant, economic damage and their marked dependence.” In addition, it adds the “reiteration of threats throughout the marriage that would have made it difficult to ask for help and the media exposure of both members of the couple”.

Almost at the end of the document, the prosecutor also mentions the report of Ms. Virginia Alberino of the Forensic Medical Corps that examined Nannis. In this document “there are no elements that prove post-traumatic stress or indicators of sexual victimization, but no logical effects arise in the story”.

In the same vein of analyzing all the evidence in the file, Prosecutor Velarde clarifies that he does not have Faena security cameras that prove Nannis's stay in the common areas.

To close the 12-page document, Velarde draws up a summary:

“The case is put forward as follows: there are no cameras or records in the residence that can give an account of what happened at that time, what does exist is the account of the victim and the witnesses. There is also the report by Ms. Alberino, whose usefulness in the case is non-specific, since it does not support the existence of traumatic sequelae, nor does it indicate logical flaws in Nannis's narrative.”

Thus, after the evaluation of all the evidence, the prosecutor decided to charge Caniggia with sexual abuse with carnal access and his investigation by March 22 at 10 am.

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