Prosecutor Marcelo Saint Jean defended individuals convicted of crimes against humanity, including Miguel Etchecolatz and Norberto Cozzani. Because of this background, the Commission of Relatives and Comrades for Justice for Diana Sacayán-Stop Trans Murders had requested his removal from the case. His father, Ibérico Saint Jean—former governor of the province of Buenos Aires between 1976 and 1981—was also in the dock. The prosecutor recused himself. Here are the files documenting his actions. Prosecutor Marcelo Saint Jean recused himself as lead prosecutor in the oral trial against one of the defendants in the trans murder of Diana Sacayán. The Commission of Relatives and Comrades for Justice for Diana Sacayán-Stop Trans Murders had requested his removal due to his history as a defender of individuals convicted of crimes against humanity. One of them is Miguel Echecolatz, the director of investigations for the Buenos Aires provincial police between March 1976 and the end of 1977, and right-hand man of former General Ramón Camps. In a written statement submitted to the court, they expressed that they considered him “unsuitable” to face the accusation for the transvesticide of the leader of the Anti-Discrimination Liberation Movement (MAL) and alternate world trans secretary of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association for Latin America and the Caribbean (ILGA-LAC).

Why do they condemn the prosecutor?

According to various newspaper articles, Marcelo Saint Jean requested the release of Miguel Etchecolatz (La Razón newspaper, 1987) on the day the Due Obedience Law came into effect, in June 1987. In 1986, Etchecolatz had been sentenced to 23 years in prison for being responsible for 91 cases of torture. After the annulment of the Due Obedience and Full Stop Laws (2003), he was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity in a trial where he was the sole defendant. Jorge Julio López, a key witness in that trial who disappeared in 2006, identified him as a torturer. In 2014, Etchecolatz was sentenced to life imprisonment in the trial for crimes committed at the clandestine detention and extermination center La Cacha (La Plata) and is currently serving his sentence. In 1986, the current prosecutor Marcelo Saint Jean was the defense attorney for the commissioner Alberto Rousse (La Razón (24/4/1986). In 1987, Marcelo Saint Jean was the defense attorney for the commissioner José Antonio Raffo (La Prensa, 16/9/1987).   Trial prosecutor Marcelo Saint Jean is one of the sons of Ibérico Saint Jean, who was governor of the province of Buenos Aires between April 8, 1976, and March 28, 1981. Ibérico was the one who, in 1977, at an officers' dinner, coined the phrase: "First we will kill all the subversives, then we will kill their collaborators, then their sympathizers, then those who remain indifferent, and finally, we will kill the timid." It wasn't his only infamous remark. Under democracy, he boasted of having disappeared "five thousand subversives." He died at the age of 90, in October 2012, without a conviction, while on trial as a crucial link in what became known as the Camps circuit in La Plata. He was charged with homicide and with depriving people of their liberty with torture in 61 separate incidents.

He also defended the corporal in those years. Norberto Cozzani (La Razón (25/10/1986) and La Prensa (17/5/1987), a police officer convicted of crimes against humanity and recognized as a ferocious torturer in the trial for Circuito Camps. In 2016 he was also convicted of illicit association as a member of the Triple A (Argentine Anticommunist Alliance), a paramilitary organization that the justice system found responsible for crimes against humanity against hundreds of people.   On the other hand, in its 2009 annual report, the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) mentioned Marcelo Saint Jean in its chapter “Police Violence: Pending Reforms in Security Institutions and Challenges for the Judiciary.” The report recounts the case of Lucas Roldán, 29, murdered in Buenos Aires on March 6, 2003, by three police officers from the 52nd precinct. It highlights that initially, as in many cases of institutional violence, an attempt was made to validate a police version of events: that Roldán had been driving a car and had fired a shot. However, Roldán's family (who worked cleaning windshields on a nearby corner) proved that he did not know how to drive. Although the prosecutor and the investigating judge initially accepted the first version, the police officers were prosecuted for homicide. “Once the oral trial concluded (July 2008), prosecutor Marcelo Saint Jean dropped the charges, considering that the police officers had reacted to an unlawful attack by Roldán. Therefore, the Oral Criminal Court No. 26 of the Federal Capital acquitted the three officers on August 2, 2008,” states the CELS text. The statement in which the organization announced the prosecutor's removal emphasizes that “he has been condemned for having defended perpetrators of genocide and for having requested the acquittal of police officers accused of extrajudicial killings.” “This is excellent news; we worked for this. This commission has a serious commitment, and the decisions made are always part of a strategy, understanding who we are facing and the context before us,” Sasha Sacayán, Diana's sibling and head of MAL, told Presentes. [READ MORE: The Justice system will continue investigating the transphobic murder of Diana Sacayán ] The request to remove prosecutor Marcelo Saint Jean was filed by the plaintiffs, led by Sasha Sacayán, with the Technical, Disciplinary, and Human Rights Secretariat of the Attorney General's Office. It was accompanied by information from the archives of the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) and the Ombudsman's Office of the Province of Buenos Aires, regarding Saint Jean's actions as a lawyer representing individuals involved in crimes against humanity in the "Camps Circuit" case. Laurana Malacalza, from the Gender Violence Observatory (OVD) of the Ombudsman's Office of the Province of Buenos Aires, told Presentes that they were able to gather information from archival data. "A person with this background, holding a public office, demonstrates little neutrality. It presupposes their position on certain issues such as human rights and the rights of trans and travesti people, meaning they would not be completely impartial in the terms required of a public official," she stated. In an article published by Página/12, journalist and lawyer Horacio Verbitsky—president of CELS—states that the prosecutor, along with his brothers Fernando and Ricardo, In 2010, he signed a public letter. from the “Association of Lawyers for Justice and Concord,” later sent to the Supreme Court of Justice. The letter argues that since 2003, the Justice system has denied essential rights and principles “to the military and security forces employed to combat terrorism.” In response to the plaintiffs' request, prosecutor Marcelo Saint Jean recused himself from the case. He notified the judge as follows: “This conclusion reached by the undersigned and presumably by those on whose behalf he speaks, that is, the LGBTI community, stems from alleged consultations with human rights organizations that, apparently, have not ruled in my favor. This prejudice is paradoxical coming from them, since, as far as I know, discrimination is one of their most frequent grievances. The profile attributed to me does not align with their objectives, which seem to exceed the legitimate aim of clarifying a criminal act.”

Among his statements, the prosecutor added: "There is no point in forcing my continued presence, given that it would be barely tolerable for me to share a similar procedural role, not to mention the physical environment, with those who have expressed themselves in such an offensive manner."

"Their offensive arguments confirm the decision."

The Commission responded in its statement: “The offensive arguments Saint Jean uses to excuse himself against us confirm the decision to have prevented this official from representing the memory and the demand for justice of our family and our community in the trial for the transphobic murder of Amancay Diana Sacayán. Furthermore, it sets an important precedent regarding the primacy of the rights of victims and plaintiffs in relation to the representation of the Public Prosecutor's Office when the rights to truth, memory, and justice are at stake.”

The Commission had also raised its concerns about Saint Jean's involvement in the investigation of the transvesticide, in addition to the Justice system, in other forums such as the meeting with the UN Independent LGBTI Expert, Vitit Muntarbhorn, during his visit to Argentina in the first week of March.

[caption id="attachment_2415" align="aligncenter" width="798"] Sasha Sacayán, Diana's sibling and leader of MAL[caption] "The removal of Saint Jean is a significant step towards solving the transphobic murder of our sister, comrade, and friend Amancay Diana Sacayán. This prosecutor, with a history of violating human rights, will no longer be leading the prosecution in the trial that the Oral Criminal Court No. 4 has scheduled for the last quarter of the year, marking two years since the murder," the statement said.

How is the trial for the transphobic murder of Diana Sacayán progressing?

The prosecutor in the trial is now Ariel Yapur. Meanwhile, the investigation continues to identify others responsible for the transphobic murder, led by Cristina Caamaño. Diana was found dead on October 13, 2015, with 13 stab wounds, in her apartment in the Flores neighborhood, where she lived with a friend. So far, according to the forensic analysis, only a 23-year-old man has been identified as the perpetrator, and he is charged with aggravated homicide due to premeditation, hate, and gender-based violence.

[READ MORE: "We don't want the second defendant to be a scapegoat"]

This week, the Commission will request that the Public Prosecutor's Office include the Specialized Prosecutor's Unit for Violence against Women (UFEM) in the preparation and conduct of the oral trial. Saint Jean has not yet granted this request.

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