MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine President's son stalker to take courses on sexual diversity

The defendant had threatened to kidnap and bury the president's son alive

An Argentine man in the province of La Pampa will have to take courses on sexual diversity after threatening President Alberto Fernánddez's son last year on social media, as per a plea deal between the plaintiff and the defendant's legal teams announced Monday in Buenos Aires.

The defendant Alejandro Dagnino had made strong hateful statements against Tani Fernández (born Estanislao, who changed his name and legal gender to fluid).

Dagnino was arrested last year when the Federal Police raided his home. He spent just a few hours in jail but the trial went on after legal complaints filed by Tani Fernández who had endured “a year of threats of all kinds, that they were going to kill him, torture him, tear him to pieces, denigrations regarding his sexual condition... Everything generated harassment and fear,” the plaintiff's lawyer Juan Pablo Fioribello explained.

Legal counselors for both parties finally agreed on probation and education courses for the defendant.

“I trusted the justice system. I prefer not to say anything. I am not having a good time, I do not feel well at this moment,” said Tani as he exited the Buenos Aires Courthouse after the end of the trial.

Fiorebello told reporters that a .32 caliber revolver had been seized from the defendant's home, “which alerted us about a very dangerous situation.”

The anonymous threats spanned from June 2020 to July 13, 2021, through different social media handles and via email. The purpose was to intimidate Tani and his friend, César Damián Cabrera, it was explained, saying both of them would be “loaded into a green Falcon” (the color and car brand infamously used during the 1976-83 dictatorship in the kidnapping and disappearance of thousands of youngsters), then “they were going to torture them”, “cut their heads off” and “burn them alive,” among other threats.

“It is of no use to us that this person serves a prison sentence. It is good for us that he is a citizen who can reorganize himself and realize that this is not done, that this kind of behavior leads to hatred,” insisted Fiorebello.

“The message is for all the people who carry out this kind of activities of threatening, intimidating, harassing, attacking a person because of his sexual condition: this kind of behavior in this country can never happen again, and Justice acts firmly,” he added.

Fiorello also explained that the defendant apologized before the judge, which is “not enough because the damage has already been committed.”

The culprit man will have to take courses on sexual diversity and democracy, once the accord between both legal teams is endorsed by the Judiciary.