Buenos Aires, Dec 23 (NA) – The Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation overturned the rejection of the inquiry into two defendants for the death of soldier Mauro Ramírez in 2003 at a barracks in Misiones, and ordered to proceed to determine criminal responsibilities after more than two decades.
Division I of the highest criminal court, made up of judges Alejandro Slokar, Diego Barroetaveña, and Carlos Mahiques, resolved by majority to grant the appeal filed by the soldier Ramírez's family. The soldier died from a shot from an FAL rifle while on guard duty at Army Outpost 30.
Judge Slokar's vote framed the case as institutional violence and argued that the death of a soldier within a military garrison imposes on the State reinforced obligations to investigate, especially when state agents may be involved.
According to what the Argentine News Agency was able to learn, the ruling cited case law from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, and warned about the possible international responsibility of the Argentine State if all avenues to clarify the fact are not exhausted.
Judge Mahiques adhered to the majority vote with emphasis on effective judicial protection, while Barroetaveña voted in dissent.
The provincial justice system had closed the case as a suicide, a hypothesis that the querella, led by the victim's mother, questioned from the beginning.
The ruling accepted the argument of the querella, with the support of the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of Chaco, and instructed to exhaust all investigative avenues to guarantee access to justice.
