The public prosecutor’s office requested that Leandro García Gómez, the ex-partner of Lourdes Fernández, one of the members of the pop group Bandanato be tried for various episodes of gender-based violence between January and October.
“García Gómez and Cecilia Lourdes Fernández maintained, from the beginning of 2020 until last October, a conflictual and intermittent relationship, characterized by a persistent context of long-standing gender-based violence, consolidated by various forms of physical and psychological aggression, repeated behaviors of emotional manipulation, harassment, control and by a progressive isolation of the victim from his family and his emotional environment,” said the Prosecutor Silvana Russi when submitting the application for a hearing before the national criminal and correctional judge Diego SlupskiJudge intervened in the case.
This was reported by the Attorney General’s Office news site. www.fiscales.gob.ar. The State Department representative called for the suspect to be charged with the crimes minor injuries aggravated by the relationship and mediation of gender-based violence, unlawful deprivation of liberty aggravated by being committed to the detriment of a person deserving special respect and by force and coercion And coercive threats repeated three times.
For prosecutor Russi, the victim’s reluctance to continue the criminal proceedings cannot be interpreted as a lack of facts, but rather as an indicator of the oppression in which she found herself.
“Although Fernández has decided not to take action on violation offenses and has expressed more than once that he did not want to report the defendant, among other things not to cause him harm, this situation shows the cycle of violence to which she was subjected and in which her personal choices and her autonomy were conditioned by the naturalization, minimization and justification of the violence she suffered“said the State Department representative, according to the aforementioned news site.
García Gómez has been in preventive detention since November 4 last year, a decision that was later confirmed by Chamber V of the National Criminal and Correctional Institutions Appeal Tribunal.
The investigation for which García Gómez is behind bars began last Thursday, October 23, at dawn with a complaint from Mabel López Arias, Lourdes’ mother.
“The woman reported the disappearance and the alleged situation of gender-based violence suffered by her daughter, whose whereabouts and health status she did not know since October 4. She called for immediate intervention by the judiciary and the police to protect her physical, mental and emotional integrity,” sources in the case said.
The singer’s mother explained that her daughter has had a conflictual relationship with García Gómez in recent years and explained this “I feared that Lourdes was being held against her will, under threats or in a context of extreme physical and psychological violence and that her life and integrity could be at serious risk.”.
Last Thursday, Lourdes’ mother testified at the Neighborhood Police Station 14B of the Metropolitan Police and the investigation fell to the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 28, which she replaced Prosecutor Patricio Lugones and with the intervention of Judge Santiago Bignone.
“By order of the judge, the personnel of the municipal police were stationed in a building in Ravignani 2186, Palermo. García Gómez was supervised by García Gómez.
Given this situation Prosecutor Lugones requested a search of apartment 3B of the building at Ravignani 2186 “with the aim of determining whether Fernández was in the building.”
The representative of the State Ministry also requested that the music producer, Fernández’s representative and the other members of Bandana be called as witnesses and “copies of the victim’s previous complaints against the defendant be collected.”
Finally, the raid was carried out at night on October 23rd. “Lourdes was found in the apartment, placed under protection and taken to Fernández Hospital. for a comprehensive medical examination. His partner was arrested on a preliminary charge of the crime of unlawful deprivation of liberty,” judicial sources reported.
In the department, he learned THE NATION According to the police, employees of the city police were kidnapped “Many bottles of alcoholic drinks such as vodka and fernet, as well as pills without inclusion blisters of different sizes and colors”.
The informants explained that everything confiscated was sent to the Scientific Police Chemical Laboratory for analysis. Lourdes was discharged and left Fernández Hospital accompanied by a friend.
“Lourdes Fernández underwent the usual examinations and was discharged as she did not have any particular symptoms,” Buenos Aires Health Ministry sources said.
According to the court, they intervened a day later and the case was taken over by the judiciary Russian prosecutor and Judge Slupski in place of Prosecutor Lugones and Judge Bignone. The suspect was questioned that day.
With the support of an official defense attorney, García Gómez explained that he had taken drugs during his time in Lourdes, but said he would not say anything about his ex-partner. He also denied having “hurt” her, as far as he could reconstruct. THE NATION from qualified legal sources.
The application for presentation to court describes a series of violent acts against the singer. According to the judiciary, the first incident occurred on January 19th in the defendant’s apartment at Ravignani 2100 in the Buenos Aires district of Palermo.
After an argument out of jealousy while checking his phone, García Gómez grabbed the victim by her hair and dragged her, injuring her face, arm and neck.which were reviewed by the Forensic Medicine Department of the Judicial Investigation Corps of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, where this case was originally handled, it says www.fiscales.gob.ar.
A second incident occurred in the same department in early October last year. According to the accusation, he had another argument at the time The defendant hit Fernández in the head and kicked him in the ribs. The screams prompted a neighbor of the building to ring the doorbell and call 911, prompting a cell phone from city police’s Neighborhood Police Station 14B to approach. The couple admitted to one of the officers that they had been arguing but said they were uninjured.
After the patrol car drove away, García Gómez left the apartment, leaving his partner locked “without keys and without a phone charger,” depriving her of her freedom until her return the next day..
The last episode was the one that gave rise to the investigation and for which García Gómez was arrested.
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