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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. After an investigation plagued by omissions and twists and turns, the Third Chamber of the Criminal Court of Cassation has formally sent to trial the 10 police officers involved in the murder of Sofía Fernández, a trans woman, on April 8, 2023, at the Pilar Police Station No. 5. The accused nearly escaped punishment, but in November 2025, the San Isidro Court of Appeals and Guarantees rejected the dismissal that Judge Walter Saettone, of the San Isidro Court No. 7, had granted to nine of them.

The news of the indictment of the 10 police officers was revealed through Mabel Valdez, Sofia's sister, and the lawyer representing the family, Ignacio Fernández Camillo.

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A post shared by Ignacio Fernández Camillo (@ignacio.fernandez.camillo)

The Public Prosecutor's Office had charged three of the defendants with triple aggravated homicide, and the other seven with double aggravated cover-up in conjunction with falsification of public documents. Of the ten defendants, three officers—Carlos Matías Rodríguez, Yésica Isabel Núñez, and Edith Viviana Ruiz—will be tried for aggravated homicide motivated by hatred based on gender identity, premeditated conspiracy, and the aggravating circumstance of being a member of the police force. The other officers face charges of cover-up and dereliction of duty.

Before the dismissal was revoked, the only one who had been indicted by the Pilar Court No. 7 was just one: Officer Carlos Rodríguez. 

A collective demand for justice

Mabel took up the mantle of demanding justice for her sister, a fight that has lasted for over three years. She was supported by LGBTQ+ and human rights organizations. The fact that the case did not go unpunished is a result of organization, perseverance, and resistance in the streets. 

Among her many actions, Mabel met with the judges of the San Isidro Court of Appeals in October 2025 and begged them to review the investigation from the very beginning. “I asked them to see the autopsy, to see the reports, everything,” she told Presentes at the time. She also told them that Sofía had asked the police at the Pilar Operations and Monitoring Center (COM) not to take her to the 5th Police Station in Derqui because “they were going to kill her there.”

For the past three years, the demand for justice for Sofía and posters bearing her image have been a constant presence at every Pride March in Argentina, every International Women's Day (March 8th), and every demonstration. The community also showed its support by sending over one hundred letters demanding justice for the transphobic murder of Sofía Fernández, signed by human rights defenders such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. Finally, after so many marches led by Mabel, protests, and leafleting outside the Derqui police station (Precinct 5), and outside various courts and government offices, the ten police officers were brought to trial.

In the lawyer's words, "with a gender perspective and an awareness of institutional violence in the assessment of evidence.".

What happened to Sofia?

Sofia was 39 years old. She was a language teacher but left the profession after experiencing discrimination in her workplaces. On April 17, 2023, she was about to begin her nursing studies and had started all the paperwork for her legal gender change.

On April 8, 2023, Sofía was detained under unclear circumstances by municipal personnel. From there, she was transferred to the 5th Police Station in Derqui, Pilar district.

According to a municipal officer who witnessed the incident, she begged them not to take her because “they were going to kill her.” Two days later, her family was notified of Sofia’s death. Initially, it was reported as suicide, then as a medical emergency. But the autopsy revealed clear signs of torture and violent death inflicted by at least three people.