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The trial of Eva Analía "Higui" de Jesús, accused of "simple homicide" after defending herself from an attack, began this Tuesday, March 15, in courtroom C of the San Martín Courts. Activists and Higui's defense team called for her immediate acquittal during a day of protests that began in the streets at 8:00 a.m. The hearing was still underway after 5:00 p.m.

Judges Gustavo Varvello, German Saint Martin and Julián Descalzo of the Oral Criminal Court Number 7 of San Martín are in charge of judging the process, while on the side of the accusation the prosecutor in charge is Liliana Tricarico, founder and president of the Association of Prosecutors of the province of Buenos Aires.

The hearing was scheduled for 9:30 a.m., but from 8 a.m. onwards, various people began arriving in support of the accused with signs, gazebos, and everything necessary to set up an open radio broadcast that later accompanied the afternoon on Ricardo Balbín Avenue at 1700, in San Martín, Buenos Aires province.

"I thank everyone for their support, seriously. In there, I don't know how I'm holding back from shedding a single tear. I'm scared shitless, but I came out and I have faith," Higui said after 2 p.m. in front of the open radio station, when the court called for a recess.

She added: "If I had been the one who died, what is happening now would not have happened."

Higui is a lesbian and is 47 years old. On October 16, 2016, she went to visit her sister Mariana in Lomas de Mariló (San Miguel) and experienced an attack in a neighborhood hallway by a group of men who harassed her because of her gender expression and sexual orientation.

In that attack, Higui defended herself with her work tool, a gardening knife she carried in her bra, and fatally wounded one of the attackers, Cristian Espósito, 28.

The police found her "unconscious and beaten" and shortly thereafter, without having access to justice, the Court of Guarantees No. 6 of San Martín prosecuted her for "simple homicide". 

For this decision she was imprisoned for almost eight months, until June 13, 2017 when she left the Magdalena prison, because she was granted extraordinary release.

“I went out for the girls,” she was heard saying on several occasions.

The defense

Higui is defended by a group of lawyers made up of Gabriela "Chiqui" Conder, Claudia Agüero, Claudia Spatocco and Verónica Heredia.

This Tuesday, Higui arrived at the courts accompanied by Conder, Spatocco and the lesbian journalist Adriana Carrasco, while a crowd cheered her with the cry of "a lesbian defended herself, her name is Higui, we want acquittal."

During the day, some of the witnesses called by the prosecution testified. A total of 35 witnesses will give testimony over the course of three hearings.

"This is what we were expecting. The witnesses who testified are all from the same family, they are relatives of 'Pino' (Cristian Espósito). They all testified in his favor," said defense attorney Gabriela Conder during a recess in the hearing.

He also detailed that there were "some contradictions that will be evaluated later."

"We hope that next week, during the closing arguments, she will be acquitted, that the justice system will recognize the gender perspective and the life story of violence and attacks that Higui suffered in her neighborhood at the hands of a group of men who attacked her," Lore Soona, 28, a member of the Campaign for Higui's Acquittal, told Presentes.

For his part, trans activist Ese Montenegro stated that "this is a particular day because we are once again in the hands of a justice system that continues to criminalize the existence of lesbians, trans women, racialized people, poor people, trans men, and transvestites. We are once again at the mercy of a justice system that is far from being able to understand and make our reality legible."

Before the hearing began, which was delayed by an hour and a half, the press expected to cover the trial, but the court denied both this possibility and a live broadcast. The deceased's family was given priority entry. The court stated it wanted to "protect the dissemination of witness statements."

State support

Also entering the room were officials from the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity of the Nation and of the province of Buenos Aires: Greta Pena, Undersecretary of Diversity Policies; Laurana Malacalza, Undersecretary of Comprehensive Approach to Violence for Reasons of Gender; Lucía Portos, Undersecretary of Gender and Sexual Diversity Policies of Buenos Aires; and Indiana Guereños, president of the Penal Thought Association, which currently integrates a program of assistance to the defenses of the Buenos Aires portfolio.

Greta Pena told Presentes that they hope the trial will take into account "in addition to a gender and diversity perspective, the context of how Higui lived, who she is, her education, and all the violence she has suffered."

Officials from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights also attended the hearing, and they warned that the prosecutor during the first hearing "did not recount as part of the process the aggression prior to the death (of Espósito)," referring to the alleged attempted rape of Higui, so "it is not contextualized in any sense."

"There is a cut in which they also mark an intention or a deliberate attitude of aggression and a homicidal attitude," Sofía Caravelos, advisor to the Undersecretary of Criminal Policy of the ministry, told this media outlet.

To this, her colleague Lucía Coppa added: "For us, this is an emblematic case. What is ultimately at stake is the possibility of proving one's right to defend oneself against a sexual attack marked by lesbophobic bias."

The Undersecretary for Gender, Sandra Cruz, attended on behalf of the Ombudsman's Office.

"We expect it to be a fair trial, with a gender perspective, and that Higui, of course, will be acquitted," she acknowledged.

And she added, regarding the prosecutor's statements: "When you look at these trials, the lack of a gender perspective and contextual understanding for a direct evaluation becomes even clearer. If you start with the aggression itself and don't begin by examining what triggered that aggression, you're at least getting a partial view of the situation. That's why it's so important that organizations like ours are there to provide support."

The hearings will continue without the presence of the press, but Gabriela "Chiqui" Conder expressed her intention that "at least the arguments and the sentence be done in a larger room" so that more people can enter.