An Argentinean who threw a glass bottle at Javier Milei on the day of the presidential inauguration was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for attempted harm and minor injuries, as a police officer ended up being hit.
Gastón Ariel Mercanzini, 53, was in the crowd during the ceremony. He threw the object at Milei as the president was transported, standing, in a convertible car from Congress to the Casa Rosada, headquarters of the Argentine Executive.
Karina Milei, current secretary general of the government and sister of the head of state, was next to him in the car.
The bottle hit a deputy commissioner of the Argentine Federal Police who was part of the president's first security circle, who ended up bleeding from the wound on his head, above his ear. Milei was not hit.
Mercanzini handed himself in to the police two days after the episode, saying he was the wanted suspect and that he wanted to apologize to the president.
“Mercanzini admitted that, while under the influence of alcohol, he threw a bottle at the area where the President of the Nation was, in a context of general dissatisfaction. He expressed regret and apologized for the case”, highlights the process that the CNN had access.
On the day of the attack, the man was unemployed and homeless. He had previously been charged with drug consumption and gender violence, a crime for which he was sentenced to 3 years in prison and served a few months in prison.
Exams carried out after the attack on Milei determined that he had characteristics compatible with “psychoactive substance use disorder, with partial awareness of the disease and need for treatment, without treatment at the time of the exam, in comorbidity with a situation of biopsychosocial vulnerability”.
But, according to the expert, not enough elements were identified to scientifically determine that he was altered to the point of not understanding or not having control over his actions in the case.
On a Facebook account in the name of Mercanzini, cited in the lawsuit, there is a post that states: “They are so short-minded that I had to make another profile, I won't be arrested, and if I am, I'll go with my head held high, I had the courage to do what many have not been able to do.”
The court document highlighted, after analyzing the suspect's social networks, that “Mercanzini showed an affinity for demonstrations, publications or news associated with another political party, expressing contempt for the current government”.
The penalty for the crime would have been one and a half years in prison, but was increased to three and a half years due to an agreement between the accused and the prosecutor, later ratified by judge María Eugenia Capuchetti, considering a previous conviction against him for gender violence. .
Source: CNN Brasil
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