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| Marita Veron (left) disappeared when she was 23, leaving behind her daughter Micaela (middle) and her mother Susana (right) |
A court in Argentina has convicted 10 people for the
kidnapping and sexual exploitation of Marita Veron, who has been missing since
2002.
The court in north-western Tucuman province
overturned a 2012 ruling which had acquitted all 13 defendants in the case of
human trafficking.
Ms. Veron's mother, Susana Trimarco, had appealed
against the ruling, which had triggered protests in Argentina.
The court upheld the acquittal of two defendants.
Another died in February.
The tribunal in Tucuman said that four of the
defendants had conspired to "hold and conceal [Ms. Veron] for the exercise
of prostitution".
Six more had "participated" in her
abduction and forced prostitution, the judges said.
Marita Veron disappeared from the city of San Miguel
de Tucuman in 2002, when she was 23 years old.
Sex workers reported spotting her in several
locations in the country, where they said she was forced to prostitute herself.
Her mother launched a campaign to find her and the
case soon became a symbol of the fight against human trafficking in Argentina.
During her search, Ms. Trimarco infiltrated herself
into human-trafficking gangs pretending to be interested in "buying"
women.
The information she gathered led to police raids in
which dozens of sexually exploited women were rescued.
However she has not been able to find her daughter
and it is not clear whether Ms Veron is still alive.
Ms. Trimarco's campaign also led to the passage of
legislation making human trafficking a crime in Argentina.
The acquittal of the 13 defendants in the case in
December 2012 caused outrage in Argentina, with thousands taking to the streets
of San Miguel and the capital, Buenos Aires, in protest.
The judges ruled at the time that there was not
enough evidence to connect the defendants to Ms. Veron.
Caveat:
The
Court System has never been about truth, justice, right, or wrong, but only
about what can be proved/disproved…
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