By Maria Eugenia Ludueña. The public trial for the transphobic murder of Amancay Diana Sacayán will take place in the second half of February 2018. This was announced by the Criminal and Correctional Court No. 4 of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires to the plaintiffs, led by Diana's brother, Sasha Sacayán, and the family. "This is the moment for justice, for the first time in Argentina's history, to address the deaths of trans women and speak out about structural violence, gender hatred, and hate crimes. It is time to redress so many years of turning a blind eye and the many murdered sisters who have not received justice," Sasha Sacayán, coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Liberation Movement (MAL), told Presentes .

[READ MORE: The Justice system will continue investigating the transvesticide of Diana Sacayán]

Diana—an activist, leader of MAL, and alternate secretary of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association for Latin America and the Caribbean (ILGALAC)—was found dead on October 13, 2015, in her apartment in the Flores neighborhood, where she lived with a friend. She had been stabbed 13 times. So far, forensic evidence has identified a 23-year-old man as the perpetrator. David Marino is on trial for aggravated homicide with premeditation, hate, and gender-based motives. For the past two years, the Commission of Family Members and Comrades for Justice for Diana Sacayán has been using all kinds of actions in different spheres to publicly demand "that the murder of our comrade Diana be investigated and prosecuted." In their efforts to have the Judiciary prosecute Diana's murder as a transphobic hate crime and a transphobic hate crime, they have taken actions such as publicly warning that the second person charged in the crime should not be a scapegoat and requesting that the investigation continue regarding other individuals who may have participated in the crime. A year ago, on December 27, 2016, Chamber 4 of the National Court of Appeals in Criminal and Correctional Matters of the City of Buenos Aires ruled in favor of this request from the plaintiffs and the prosecution. It ordered that the main suspect in the crime be brought to trial and that supplementary measures be carried out to confirm or rule out the participation of the second suspect in the case and to continue the pending lines of investigation. “The involvement of one of the accused is not in question. We know there were two killers. We want to know who the other one is. We need the investigation to remain open to clarify what happened. That’s what Diana deserves, and what we all deserve,” said Luciana Sanchez, the Commission’s lawyer. “There is a lot of prejudice in the justice system; the fact that we are even talking about a transphobic murder is a great achievement. It is important that there be justice for Diana, not only for her friends and family, but also for democracy.” “We are in the final stages of a long and difficult process where we poured our hearts and souls into achieving justice for Diana,” the members of the Commission stated in a press release announcing the trial date.

They are calling a meeting in the first week of January

Next week, the Commission will convene a meeting with political and social organizations and activists to coordinate strategies for this new phase of the trial, which comes exactly one year after it was brought by prosecutor Matías Di Lello and the Specialized Prosecutor's Unit for Violence against Women and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, Transgender, Transsexual, and Intersex People (UFEM). In the trial, the Public Prosecutor's Office will be jointly represented by UFEM, headed by Mariela Labozzeta, and by prosecutor Ariel Yapur. In the request for a trial, the prosecution linked the crime to Diana's activism for trans rights. "The circumstances and the manner in which the crime was committed suggest that the murder was motivated by her status as a trans woman and by her role as a member of the Sexual Diversity Program team at INADI (National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism) and a driving force in the fight for the rights of trans people." “At this crucial moment in the legal process, we want to remember Diana Sacayán’s legacy and thank all the comrades who have stood with us from day one in our fight for justice for Diana,” said Darío Arias, coordinator of the organization Conurbanos x la Diversidad and a member of the commission. He added, “We are in a painful moment, and we have been doing extensive political, legal, and communications work on various fronts and with different actors to achieve an exemplary sentence and obtain justice for our sister and comrade. We ask everyone to continue supporting us during this fundamental stage.”

[READ MORE: Two years without Diana Sacayán: “She continues to be our guiding light”]

In the last ten days, two transphobic murders resulted in convictions in the Argentine justice system: the murder of Vanesa Zabala in Reconquista (Santa Fe), and the murder of Natalia Sandoval in Mendoza. In neither case did the courts include in their rulings the aggravating circumstance of hatred based on gender identity. The trial for the transphobic murder of activist Diana Sacayán also seeks to set a precedent in this regard: that such crimes be prosecuted as hate crimes and transphobic murders.

[READ MORE: Transvesticide of Natalia Sandoval: the two accused were sentenced to life imprisonment ]

“We are in a difficult situation. We come from two court cases where, although a life sentence was achieved in the very significant way for the cases of Vanesa Zabala in Santa Fe and Natalia Sandoval in Mendoza, the aggravating factors of hate and gender were not considered in these crimes. We want the trial of Diana Sacayán to address the situation of structural violence that our sisters experience and for the perpetrators to be judged with the charges of hate crime and transphobic murder,” said Sasha Sacayán.

[READ MORE: Trial for the transvesticide of Vanesa Zabala: life imprisonment for the murderers ]

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