The Mendoza Federal Criminal Court (TOF) 2 today sentenced former army lieutenant Mario Guillermo Ocampo to life imprisonmentin the twelfth trial in this province for crimes of It hurts humanity committed by the latter dictatorship civil Military.
After hearing the last words of the only accused, the court, composed of judges Alberto Carelli, Héctor Cortez and Paula Marisi, announced the verdict of this trial, which began on March 22nd and which analyzed the crimes committed in the city of San Rafael against 12 victims, committed between March and November 1976.
Mendoza’s TOF 2 sentenced to life Ocampo, a former lieutenant in VIII Mountain Engineers Company, who followed the entire trial and verdict virtually. Before the verdict was pronounced, the court denied the defendant’s defense’s motion for an annulment without reimbursement of costs.
The unanimous decision reads: “Mario Guillermo Ocampo is sentenced to life imprisonment and life disqualification for being an accomplice criminally responsible for the crimes of double homicide for treason and mediation of premeditated altercation between two or more people to the detriment of José Guillermo Berón.”
In addition, for “abusive deprivation of liberty, aggravated by the mediation of violence and threats, lasting more than a month in 12 cases”; for “aggravating the agony by committing the political persecution of the victim for 12 acts” and as “criminal responsible author of the offense of the illicit association as a member of the same.”
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The former lieutenant came to this trial for the crimes of the middle perpetrator of a murder and the twelve counts of abusive deprivation of liberty and aggravated use of torture committed between March and November 1976, and as a perpetrator of an illegal association as a leader or organizer.
The facts discussed in this trial concerned those inflicted on the victims in the various Secret Detention Centers (CCD) such as San Rafael Township, Bowen Police Station, Police Infantry Facilities, General Alvear’s 14th Section and the San Rafael Division House.
Mario Guillermo Ocampo was again sentenced to life imprisonment.
The defendant told the court: “I simply tell the President and the members of the court that I am innocent of the facts alleged against me. This is confirmed by the investigative statement I submitted and by the arguments of the defense.”
In the debate room on the first floor of the courthouse were the relatives of the disappeared, who watched with anticipation the final part of this trial. Outside the federal courthouses, photos and posters commemorating the victims hang on the steps of the federal courthouse. When the decision became known, there were moving scenes and hugs among the victims’ relatives.
Prosecutor Daniel Rodríguez Infante told Télam: “It is important to highlight and celebrate that a new trial is coming to an end. In our province we had many processes that are important due to different characteristics.”
He added to the sentence: “It seems extremely relevant to us, as we have pointed out in the debate, that Ocampo was the third in the chain of command within VIII Engineer Company responsible for the state repression in the Southern Province and this is a new judgment against him and reflects his role in the state repression plan, so it is a judgment consistent with what we have posited.”
Pablo Garciarena, who intervened as an ad hoc prosecutor in previous San Rafael trials, stated: “The defense had technically requested the dismissal of our charges of the crime of tortious association, and the court denied the dismissal and convicted them of tortious association with a small procedural difference, but he was also convicted of that crime.”
The former lieutenant served in VIII Mountain Company between December 1975 and February 1979.
Ocampo, who was on the run from justice from 2012 to 2019 for another crime-related debate It hurts humanitywas sentenced to two life terms in 2021 and 2022, along with other oppressors, in the Counteroffensive II case when he served as head of the second division of Division 201 in Campo de Mayo, and for the Ocampo and Cumulative trial, which took place in the city of San Rafael.