Three Vélez players under house arrest for sexual abuse

A judge in the Argentine province of Tucuman has ordered three players from the Vélez Sarsfield football club accused of sexually abusing a young woman to be placed under house arrest and a fourth member of the squad to be released on condition. Justice process.

Judge Eliana Gomez Moreira granted detention to Argentines Braian Cufré and Abiel Osorio and Paraguayan José Florentin, who will serve 90 days at an address they set up in the northern province of Tucumán, pending trial. Meanwhile, he ordered Uruguayan goalkeeper Sebastian Sosa to be released and continue to live in Buenos Aires, although he cannot leave the country for three months and must appear before the Tucuman justice system every 15 days.

The top three players will be tracked with electronic ankle bracelets. Each of the four must post bail of 50 million pesos (more than $57,000) and cannot access the alleged victim.

The judge announced his decision in a lengthy trial attended by the four footballers earlier in the day in Tucuman, the capital of the homonymous province, 1,200 kilometers from Buenos Aires, which was broadcast by the media. .

An unidentified young journalist reported being raped by four players at a hotel in Tucumán on March 3, hours after Velez's draw against local side Atlético de Tucuman in the Argentine league. The players have denied the allegations.

After the complaint became known, Vélez temporarily removed the accused from the team and subsequently suspended their contracts.

The judge upheld the charges filed by prosecutor Maria Eugenia Boss.

Cufré and Florentín were accused of sexual abuse with aggravated physical access with the participation of two or more persons. In Osorio's case, he was charged with sexual assault with sexual access. As for Sosa, he would have been a secondary participant in the alleged abuse and thus acquitted.

According to the complainant's story, Sosa sent her messages through the Instagram application inviting her to the Hilton Hotel, which she accepted, arriving at the venue in the early hours of Sunday, March 3, and “went straight to room 407. Already waiting for the player.

Upon entering the room, the woman noticed that Gufre, Osorio and Florentin were also there, with whom she shared “a few cans of beer” and another drink they gave her in a thermos. She said she started feeling dizzy, so she lay down on one of the beds.

It was then, according to her story, that they sexually abused her without any permission. The teenager left the hotel on her own.

This is not the first time such complaints have been made against Vélez and other Argentine club players.

At the end of 2020, a woman accused Thiago Almada and Miguel Brizuela of sexual abuse during a private party, and both were separated from the Vélez team and charged by justice. In February 2021, the club announced its retrial, adding “significant changes” to the judicial case by incorporating new evidence, expertise and testimony.

Colombian Sebastian Villa is awaiting trial for allegedly sexually abusing a young woman in 2021 while a Boca Juniors player.

Nahuel Zárate, a full-back from Independiente, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison in 2017 for sexual abuse.

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