The Acting Attorney General of the Nation, Eduardo Casal, asked all national and federal prosecutors that, understanding the limited context of work for the coronavirus pandemic, give intervention to victims of criminal offenses in every case they have under their orbit.
In a resolution issued last week, Casal pointed out that they use all the technological resources at their disposal so that they “take extreme care to guarantee the rights of the victims and their due intervention, both during the processing of the process.”
“It was not done because of the claim of any victim or because it has been detected that intervention has stopped. But because we understand that the participation of victims is important in the causes and because the current work context hinders normal performance. But today with an email, a call to a WhatsApp message you can make a contact “, a judicial source explained to Infobae.
The Attorney General joined the social isolation measures that the national government of Alberto Fernández before the coronavirus pandemic. Work on urgent cases was arranged, remotely for prosecutors from their homes, with a minimal and indispensable presence in the Public Prosecutor’s Offices and without attention to the public to avoid the presence of people and thus prevent the spread of the virus.
Along these lines, Casal explained in his resolution that Law 27,372 on the Rights and Guarantees of Victims of Crime entered into force in 2017, giving him participation in criminal cases.
Among other regulations, the norm establishes that victims will have “the right to advice, assistance, representation, protection, truth, access to justice, fair treatment, reparation, speed and all other rights enshrined in the National Constitution.”
The Attorney General has the Special Program for Comprehensive Assistance to Victims in the Criminal Process of the General Directorate for Accompaniment, Guidance and Protection of Victims (DOVIC). “It should be remembered that, among its functions, is to guarantee victims of any crime the rights of accompaniment, orientation, protection and general information, from the first contact with this institution and throughout the criminal process, either through of an interdisciplinary approach or with the necessary referral that guarantees their technical assistance ”, explained Casal.
The provisions cover the intervention of the victims during the investigation of the cases as well as in the execution of the sentence, that is to say, at the requests of the victimizers of house arrest or different types of release from prison. “The victim has the right to be informed, to express his opinion and to everything he deems appropriate before the execution judge,” says the law.
Casal maintained that “the difficulty that, in this context, the materialization of certain judicial proceedings, and that has even motivated extraordinary measures to be taken to ensure the effective fulfillment of the purposes of the law, does not escape this office.”
“It is also in this exceptional framework, that I consider it necessary to entrust the public prosecutors that, by using all the technical means available, take extreme care to guarantee the rights of the victims and their due intervention, both during the processing of the process, as in its execution stage and, especially, in the concretion of those procedural acts that could be affected by the conditions in which, currently, the functions corresponding to the agents of this Public Prosecutor’s Office are being carried out ”, ordered the chief of the public prosecutors.
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