What did Claudio Caniggia say in his inquiry into alleged sexual abuse of Mariana Nannis

Claudio Paul Caniggia turned on the Zoom application on his notebook around 10 in the morning. On the other side, prosecutor Carlos Velarde was waiting for him to take a statement in the case of alleged sexual abuse of his ex-wife Mariana Nannis as a victim. The former footballer of the national team spoke for three hours. He denied the fact and assured that it was all an invention of his ex-wife. “I am calm, I always go hand in hand with the truth,” he said.

With this procedural step completed, the prosecutor will now have to assess whether he asks for prosecution. At the same time, the defense of Caniggia, led by Fernando Burlando, will ask for false testimony for the friends of the victim who testified in the file.

The case began in February 2020 when Nannis approached the prosecution and said that she had been raped by her ex-husband “a year and a half ago.” In that statement, he assured that Caniggia had tried to have sex with her and, in the face of her refusal, forced her to do so. “He started to take me by force,” he said. “When I wanted to leave he said to me: 'If you go out that door I will kill you bastard. You here, alone, do not leave me”, he added.

Prosecutor Velarde determined, according to the letter in which Caniggia was summoned to the inquiry, that the incident occurred on May 5, 2018 in the 221 department of the Hotel Faena, where the couple had one of their homes. “Between the early morning and the early hours of the morning”, according to documents accessed by Infobae.

In the reconstruction carried out by the Justice, based on the testimonies of Nannis and her friends, it was specified that that night, the couple left a wedding at the Palermo Racecourse and then went to Faena. “Caniggia drove at great speed while arguing with Nannis, slapping him in one of his hands,” the prosecution says.

Once inside the apartment of the luxurious hotel, there would have been scenes of violence prior to the reported abuse. Nannis said that, when he refused to have sex with Caniggia, the former star told him “I'm going to kill you, you bastard” and then “blows his fist in the face”. The document prepared by the prosecution clarifies that these punches “never hit there, since she covered herself with her hands, eventually banging the victim's arms and hands.”

Regarding sexual abuse, Nannis stated that Caniggia climbed on top of her and raped her. “When he finished he told me that if I made the complaint my head would roll,” he said.

The file contains testimonies of friends of Nannis that are decisive for the prosecutor. A woman named A.R.P reported that she was present at the wedding on May 5, 2018. He said that night Caniggia was in “very bad shape” and that “the two of them (because of him and Nannis) argued making the atmosphere very tense”.

She also added that, with Caniggia and Nannis at the Faena, she called her friend several times without an answer, until she attended her: “She attends me but she doesn't talk to me, you hear silence until in the background I hear that they say 'I'm going to kill you a bastard. '”

“The next morning, Mariana calls me desperate from the bathroom, crying, with a nervous breakdown. She tells me she had been raped. I went to see her a few hours later and she had dark bruises on her arms, legs, calves and hands,” said the witness.

There are two reports that Prosecutor Velarde took as valid when it came to gathering the evidence and calling Caniggia for inquiry. One is a document prepared by professionals from the Office of Domestic Violence (OV.D) which assesses that the reported situation constitutes “long-standing and high-risk gender-based violence, based on indicators such as chronicity, tenor of violence and media exposure of both partners”.

The other is the psychological report made to Nannis by Silvia Virginia Alberino of the Forensic Medical Corps. Although the prosecutor found it somewhat ambiguous, since he points out that “there are no elements that prove post-traumatic stress or indicators of sexual violence” and, at the same time, he says “there are no logical effects to the story nor were signs or symptoms of psychotic disorganization observed”.

With these tests in the knowledge of all parties, this morning Caniggia defended himself.

His technical defense, with Fernando Burlando at the helm, focuses mainly on dates. “The prosecutor accuses him of sexual abuse that Nannis herself does not report. On May 5, 2018, the lady says she was beaten by Claudio but she doesn't talk about rape that day. The prosecutor got confused and made a mistake when mixing up the dates. In addition, witnesses say that they spoke to Nannis that day, when the complainant herself says that she did not speak to them that day.”

With regard to the latter, in the next few hours a complaint will be filed with the prosecution for false testimony specifically against two friends of Nannis. They will also ask for their arrests for that crime.

Another of Caniggia's defence points this morning was emphasized in the first part of the report of the official psychologist expert where she talks about the absence of signs of sexual violence in Nannis.

The next step in the file will be extremely relevant. The prosecutor must decide whether to request the prosecution of Caniggia. If it does, it will remain in the hands of Judge Pablo Ormaechea if he confirms that request, if he dictates the lack of merit or if he dismisses it.

KEEP READING: