The lawyer Horacio Samamé assured that the pandemic raised a series of problems and differences in the Judicial Power in Trenque Lauquen, and was very critical of some situations that occurred within the framework of the local marches calling for speedy justice, as well as also of the preventive prisons that are dictated, of his colleagues who choose to enter the State and of those who speak of “warranties” when the constitutional statute is defended.
This has been a particular year for the Justice system, mainly due to the implementation of an electronic system that came to supply all the activities that were suspended due to isolation and then social distancing as a result of Covid-19. But there were also other situations of social claims towards the structure of the Judicial Power, and trade unions at all levels of the structure, which plunged this power of the provincial State into a kind of institutional crisis.
For Samamé, the sum of these situations does not diminish the credibility of Justice as a value, but rather “those in charge of fulfilling this function, which is to administer justice. The pandemic has brought out all these differences, as in the case of the Judicial Power, which is a very large institution in charge of ensuring strict compliance with the Constitution, where all this is obviously going to generate distortions and problems, ”said the criminal lawyer.
As an example, he said that currently “when we want to exercise the rights of both the accused and the victims, they speak of excess, the famous phrase of the guarantors, it seems that defending the Constitution is being a guarantor, but they are constitutional guarantees and there would be no republic if we do not respect the Constitution, and unfortunately in other times we had interruptions in the democratic processes where the Constitution was administered at 10 percent and that’s how it was, ”he recalled.
Differentiate claims
In this framework, Samamé did not hesitate to assure that today “the administration of justice is in crisis, there is no doubt about that, this is perceived by society and here it would make a differentiation of what is a fair claim with what it is to express a dissatisfaction but that is not supported by causes that justify it ”.
Clearly alluding to the marches held a few days ago by the parents of children who are victims of sexual abuse, he explained that “many times a legitimate feeling of justice is confused by asking for greater speed, with what we normally see and call escraches, or sentences through social networks that disclose names of people who have not always been accused of crimes. Many of the people who today have their photos pasted on the posts, I have checked that not all of them have been reported as appropriate in the prosecution for an investigation to be initiated, and those who have been reported, rest assured that the prosecutors are investigating, collecting evidence and when the procedural moment arrives they will take these cases to trial and a court or magistrate will analyze the evidence and decide whether to convict or acquit the accused person ”.
Meanwhile – the local lawyer continued – “here a sentence is being given that is very harsh, the one that occurs socially, because I insist that there are people who have not been denounced, and others who have, but not enough evidence was obtained to raise the cause to trial ”. And he attacked: “So here there is no longer a feeling of justice, that seems more like a personal revenge for not having obtained a result.”
To close the issue, Samamé explained that every person accused of committing a crime “enjoys the principle of innocence, there are constitutional guarantees that guarantee to any citizen that at the time of being charged all their rights are respected, because that person is facing the power of the State, the budget of the State, that is to say, it is in a very great disproportion ”.
Of procedural guarantees and preventive prisons
The pandemic brought changes in the way of carrying out the processes in the field of Justice. But the modifications did not always comply with the legal guarantees, according to the lawyer Horacio Samamé.
One of these problems, according to the analysis of the local criminal lawyer “managing the requests made by the parties in a process, was marked in many cases by the lack of being able to have daily contact and having to adapt to electronic means that do not always work, but that occurred for example in the framework of the hearings to respect a series of preventive measures and avoid contagion ”. And it was thus that “they generated a true distortion of what the times are, although it is true that it must be recognized that what happens in the criminal jurisdiction with respect to the administrative, civil or family jurisdiction is the same.”
Protocols
While recognizing that in many offices a great effort was made to comply with the protocols without this detracting from the work, “in the criminal jurisdiction it happened that it was impossible to transfer a person who is accused from a prison unit by a protocol of distancing and precisely to avoid contagions, so that he is in the presence of a judge. And this is not a minor issue ”. “As a defender, I do not agree with all kinds of hearings being held through computerized means because we depend on a connectivity that is not the same as what you can have here in the capital city with which you can have, for example, a prison unit beyond that these kinds of things have been foreseen ”he pointed out.
Then, he maintains that it is there when “procedural guarantees are not given for me, it is a violation of the right of defense. A person who is going to be deprived of his liberty at least deserves to be heard and seen in person, it is not a criticism of the magistrate but of the situation we have, “he clarified.
Meanwhile, the criminal lawyer considered that within this framework, “preventive prisons are abused, despite the fact that the judges say they are precautionary measures. The truth is that they are anticipated penalties because afterwards they end up being computed as sentence completion ”.
In defense of the employee
“I already know that this is going to have consequences and they are going to hit me,” Horacio Samamé repeated in several passages of the interview.
It is that the lawyer did not spare criticism in this review of the situation of justice in 2020. And in order not to leave any open front, he also got into the union field of judicial employees, qualifying as “baby” lawyers those colleagues who They decide to enter the State and thereby damage the administrative career of some workers who are not lawyers.
“It always seemed unfair to me that there is no salary scale for the administrative employee of the judiciary that differs so much from what a ‘baby’ lawyer earns, that with a degree it displaces an administrative employee who has been waiting for a promotion for 20 years and enters in that place and to be appointed as legal assistant shortly afterwards and thereby cause him to lose his administrative position, ”said Samamé.
And finally, he described these lawyers as “zoo hunters”, while those like him who litigate in a particular way, he called “jungle hunters.”
In this context, said the criminal lawyer, “I cannot have respect for a person who prioritized his economic situation without having made an attempt to hunt in the street, and suddenly puts a brake on a person who is not a lawyer in his working career , that distortion also generates a great discomfort ”.
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