Judge María Romilda Servini issued a ruling this Thursday closing the criminal cases of eleven people detained during the repression that took place in June, amid protests against the approval of the Framework Law. The ruling reveals the use of arbitrary detentions as a strategy to criminalize social protests and marks an important advance in the campaign for the closure of all cases opened under this same scheme of evidence fabrication.
In the dismissal ruling, the footage from the time of the arrests was reviewed, refuting the police statements recorded in the detention records. People from various sectors, such as retirees, teachers, students, healthcare workers, and public employees, have maintained their resistance through assemblies, marches, and strikes.
Family members, coworkers, and labor and political organizations denounced the manipulation of facts by the security forces and affiliated media, demanding the release of the five detainees who spent more than a month in Ezeiza prison. The footage evidences the violence with which the arbitrary detentions were carried out, including beatings and being thrown to the ground, even locking up individuals trying to leave the area.
The dismissal ruling for the eleven detainees has represented a key step in the fight against the criminalization of social protest. Despite evidence of falsehoods in the police statements, five detainees are still being prosecuted, while others await judicial decisions and 17 have been deemed lacking merit.
The social response and the campaign for freedom have been strong from the start. Defense attorneys, along with other actors, presented recordings that demonstrated the lies in the accusations fabricated by the police. The footage shows the brutality with which the demonstrators were arrested, even bystanders with no involvement in the events.
Judge Servini has dismantled the cases fabricated by the police, supporting allegations of violent, arbitrary, and illegal detentions. The importance of this judicial step lies in the need to end unfounded cases. The detentions were carried out in a manner to criminalize social protest, and the recordings have been crucial in demonstrating the truth behind the events.
