Argentine social leader Milagro Sala’s fifth trial ruling will be announced by Judges Ana Carolina Perez Rojas, Claudia Cecilia Sadir and Mario Puig Wednesday at 3pm local time.
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Sala is accused of injuring another social leader. Her lawyers, Paula Alvarez Carreras and Ariel Ruarte, criticized the court for violating the right to defense by rejecting Sala’s witnesses while only the prosecution’s witnesses were produced.
They also pointed out that all the previous trials of Sala followed the same pattern, violating the defence's rights to a fair trial.
Sala is also being investigated for alleged illicit association, fraud and extortion — crimes she was charged with days after her 2016 detention for allegedly instigating violence during a protest against Jujuy Governor Gerardo Morales, one she didn't attend.
"A new legal proceeding against Milagro Sala began today. It is the fifth oral trial she faces. The defense denounced that the leader is prevented from exercising her legitimacy right to defense."
The defense also denounced serious irregularities in the process, among which the leader was prevented from participating in a hearing which Judge Pablo Pullen Llermanos transferred. Sala rushed to the trial from the hospital, still dressed in pajamas, only to be thrown from court by presiding judges who considered her apparel inappropriate for court.
Sala is one of the founders and leaders of the Tupac Amaru Neighborhoods’ Organization, which provided housing and other services to informal workers and working-class sectors since 1999.
She served as an Argentine legislator between 2013 and 2015 and was later elected to Mercosur’s parliament, prior to her arrest in 2016 for allegedly instigating violence against the state.