The Federal Unit for the femicide case of Jimena Salas, which occurred in January 2017 in Salta province, requested during the closing arguments that brothers Carlos Damián and Adrián Guillero Saavedra be sentenced to 12 years in prison, maintaining that it was a case of extreme violence due to the 53 injuries found on the victim's body. The tribunal, composed of judges José Luis Riera, Mónica Faber, and Maximiliano Troyano, allowed the parties to present their arguments this Wednesday, and during the prosecution's turn, the evidence produced and the reconstruction of the facts were analyzed and evaluated. Federal prosecutor Leandro Flores argued that Salas's death was a case of 'extreme violence against a woman, manifested in the 53 injuries on her body, which clearly show an intent to kill, completely ruling out an accidental situation'. Meanwhile, federal prosecutor Mónica Poma referred to the tasks that led to identifying the Saavedra brothers as suspects and to the evidence linking them to Salas's violent death. 'She referred to the intimidating situation that different witnesses suffered during the investigation and the trial, and to public statements made about the proceedings that were not later reflected in judicial filings,' the provincial Ministry of Public Prosecution's portal states. She also referred to the changes in appearance and dress of Javier Nicolás Saavedra after photos taken by the victim and other witnesses were made public. The accused committed suicide the day before the trial against him was set to begin. She also noted that from the analysis of the seized items, it was possible to verify that Javier Saavedra kept up with news related to the case and that he joined a Facebook group calling for justice for Salas. In turn, prosecutor Gabriel González referred to the evidence that supports the Saavedra brothers' participation in the fact, based on collected testimonies, analysis of security cameras, communications, and other proceedings. 'He emphasized the periods of inactivity in communications and data traffic of the three brothers on the day of the event, days before and after, and that during the trial, it could not be demonstrated that they were elsewhere,' he indicated. Concluding, the Federal Unit maintains that Javier Nicolás Saavedra and the male identified as H2 are the co-authors of the qualified homicide with treachery, cruelty, for criminal cause, by the premeditated concert of two or more people, and the femicide of Jimena Beatriz Salas. Meanwhile, brothers Carlos Damián and Adrián Guillermo Saavedra were secondary participants in the crime of qualified homicide with treachery, cruelty, for criminal cause, by the premeditated concert of two or more people, and femicide, against Jimena Beatriz Salas, by collaborating in the commission of the illicit. In this way, it was requested that both be sentenced to a 12-year prison sentence to be served effectively and that the sentence be carried out in a penitentiary institution. Additionally, it was requested that they be registered in the Genetic Data Bank.
