“Son of Rosario victim confronts terrorist in court, delivers powerful statement”

ROSARIO.– Martín Mendoza, 17, son of Hernánwho died along with four other Rosario in 2017 in a terrorist attack in New York, stood yesterday in front of his father’s murderer, el terrorist Sayfullo Saipovand read in the court of that North American city what he had written a few days before in Rosario. She recalled when her mother, Ana Evans, and her uncle conveyed to her after school that her father—who had traveled with a Group of friends to the United States to celebrate the anniversary of graduating from high school – had died.

“One afternoon that was full of joy and emotions, coming back from having enjoyed a school trip, turned out to be the least expected moment. At school my mother and uncle welcomed me to give me the words that no one would ever want to hear, becoming the most terrible news i ever received. A thousand emotions ran through my skin, clouding my head. He couldn’t understand what he had just heard, invaded by the fear and helplessness of the loss, he tried to assimilate that nothing would ever be the same again; and in the worst way, the death of my father, changed my life forever”, the Uzbek terrorist heard from this young man, who traveled to attend the last day of the trial, in which Saipov was sentenced to ten life sentences, plus 260 years in prison.

Martin traveled with a friend to NY and had the opportunity, like other victims, to speak in front of the jury and the convicted person. in dialogue with THE NATION, Ana Evans, his mother, said that her son wanted to participate in the hearing and speak before the murderer. “He decided to write a text, because he believed that words would not be able to come out in front of the terrorist who killed his father,” said the widow, who added that she had the help of the family and a philosophy professor to be able to express what he felt.

“That news struck a child, a child who lost his naivety and innocence in a single instant. A child immersed in the comfort and certainty of my daily life, from which I was often unable to understand the world outside of my childhood. Perhaps also because of that childish innocence, which many children use as a shield to protect themselves from situations or adversities in life. Can you imagine the sadness of growing up without a father, without being able to hug him again, or can you imagine the fear of losing those happy childhood memories due to the trauma caused?”, says the text that Martín Mendoza read, to which he had access THE NATION.

Later, the young man and his friend, together with other relatives of the victims of that attack, toured the place where the tragic terrorist attack that killed his father and part of his friends took place. Prosecutors and FBI agents also participated in the walk.

“Since that day I seek to understand cruelty and hate that moves the terrorists. Questions without answers arise, frustration and pain invade me. I feel bewildered and incomplete, as if a part of me and my story has been taken from me. My father was a very important person to me, he raised me with love since I was born. Every day I try to understand why or how someone could have taken his life,” adds the letter written by Martín.

Opposite the young man sat on the dais Saipov, who was convicted of the juez Vernon Broderick, when applying the verdict reached on March 3 by the jury, which for its part refused to apply the death penalty after deliberations that lasted nine hours. Among those who had requested the death penalty was the Mendoza family, who did so through lawyer Juan Félix Marteau.

In yesterday’s session, Saipov spoke for more than an hour, according to various media present, and delivered a speech riddled with religious references and pointing a finger at heaven on numerous occasions, while quoting different prophets from the Koran and even Adam and Eve and the temptation of the serpent.

The judge gave the floor to relatives of the deceased, such as the Argentine Gabriela Pereya, widow of Ariel Erlij, who confronted Saipov: “Your god thinks you are a coward because you did not kill yourself when you killed them. And if you want him to accept you and love you, he goes and kills yourself,” she snapped, according to Fox News.

In addition to Hernan Mendoza y Ariel ErlijHis friends died in the attack Diego Angelini, Alexander Pagnucco y Hernan Ferruchi, all former students of the Polytechnic College of Rosario. The list of victims is completed by the Belgian Ann-Laure Decadt and the americans Nicholas Cleves y Darren Drake.

A survivor of the attack, Rachel Pharn, also took the floor, who told him that his actions “do not serve Allah”, and asked him: “If you say that you are not sorry, that you did it on purpose, is that true? I need to know why, how can I fix you, and how can I fix the world around me.”

Among those who took the floor was also Martín Mendoza, who closed his speech with this sentence: “This tragic event took thousands of experiences away from me, and the possibility of living a future with my dad. Every day the desire to share a meal with him, a soccer game, my graduation or any of my goals in life grows. Hoping that one day he will come home and tell me “What’s up, little monkey”, as he always did. Dreaming of what was not and will not be. Keeping everything lived with him in the only place where he is still alive for me, my memory.