Brayan Smith Medina Rueda, former manager of a Koaj store located in the south of the capital of the republic, was charged with the crimes of aggravated violent sexual act (non-consensual sexual touching) and sexual harassment by the Attorney General's Office.
In a statement issued last Monday, the prosecutor explained that, according to the Colombian Penal Code, violent sexual acts can be sentenced to between 8 and 16 years in prison, while sexual harassment is punishable by 1 to 3 years in prison, which could lead to a penalty of more than 20 years for Medina Rueda.
According to the above, Brayan Smith Medina Rueda reportedly wrongly touched Juana Camila Pérez Amazo, commercial advisor at the Koaj store in the Gran Plaza Bosa shopping center, where he worked as a manager.
The accusing body points out that there is evidence that the accused threatened the woman with being fired, after she refused to respond to his advances.
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In addition, she stressed that the woman suffered from depression and a suicide attempt, so she had to be medicated to control her emotional situation. Juana Camila Pérez Amazo reported on her mental and physical condition in a hearing in front of the 22nd Court of Guarantees Control in Bogotá.
The prosecutor in charge of the case stated that for this case the sentence imposed on Medina Rueda could range from 10 to 24 years in prison.
The defendant denied the charges.
The lawyer Juan José Castro Muñoz spoke exclusively to INFOBAE COLOMBIA, who heard about the case of Juana Camila Pérez through social networks, of which he is an active user.
A friend of the complainant contacted him and told him about the delicate case: the Koaj worker at the Gran Plaza Bosa and Mercurio shopping centers had reported one case of sexual harassment for eighteen months and another case of a labor case for a year.
The alleged perpetrators, Brayan Smith Medina and Bernardo Medina, were linked as managers of the aforementioned clothing store, one of the best known in the country. However, the lawyer also points out that the superiors of these people knew what Juana Camila and other employees were suffering from, but the only relevant action they took was to move Perez from the workplace.
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According to the complainant, the former abused his position of power to promote moments in solitude and touch his body without his consent. The second forced her to work despite having symptoms of moderate covid-19 and a positive test. After recovering, as a punishment for having reported this irregularity, she was forced to do heavy work and overtime without pay.
The young woman began to suffer these problems at the age of 18 and today, according to lawyer Castro, she is suffering from physical and psychological problems as a result of stress and abuse. Being unable to achieve anything through the regular channel, he reported his case on his Instagram account on January 27 and went viral.
Following the denunciation of Juana's case, a storm of support and reports of similar cases arose in the same company. The effective result within the company has only been to sanction those involved for three days, but the social sanction outside has been overwhelming.
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