Argentine footballer Gonzalo Montiel, 27, traveled from Spain to Argentina to appear before the Justice Department of his native country. This Tuesday, the Sevilla player underwent a psychological examination in the case in which he is being investigated for “sexual abuse with carnal access aggravated by the participation of two or more people.” Montiel is suspected of having raped his ex-partner along with two other men on the night between December 31, 2019 and January 1, 2020.
The complainant, identified as Carolina B., told the judge that the alleged abuse occurred at Montiel’s family home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires during a party she organised for his twenty-third birthday. As he said in an interview with the television channel Todo NoticiasMontiel introduced her to his parents and then they went inside the house, where they offered her a drink. After a while she began to feel ill, she went to the bathroom and when she came out she lost consciousness until she regained consciousness hours later outside the house, without understanding what had happened in the meantime. After returning home and checking herself, she realized that she had bruises on her thighs. She said that the footballer sent her a message to ask her if she was okay and to tell her that he had been “with someone”, while Montiel’s mother contacted her to warn her that she had been a victim of abuse.
“Gonzalo raped me. It was his birthday and he invited me to his house, we were getting to know each other. They drugged me until I was unconscious, that has already been proven in the investigation, as well as my screams in the middle of the meeting,” said Carolina. In addition to the Albiceleste defender, his neighbor Alexis Acosta is also being investigated for the same crime. The third man who allegedly participated in the group abuse has not been identified by the courts.
The Albiceleste defender denies the accusation and declares himself innocent. His defense issued a statement on Tuesday in which it states that by carrying out the diligence required by the court, evidence was provided that will confirm Montiel’s innocence. “Convincing evidence has been provided to the process that exposes Montiel’s non-involvement with the facts of which he is accused and they are fully confident that the ongoing judicial process will yield the results expected by the defense,” added the defense attorneys.
The complaint has had no impact on Montiel’s football career, who was trained at Argentine club River Plate, where he played as a full-back between 2016 and 2021, before signing for Sevilla. He made his mark with the Argentine national team at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when he scored the last penalty in the final against France.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Raquel Hermida Leyenda, expressed her conviction that the judge will soon close the investigation phase and send Montiel and Acosta to trial. Hermida Leyenda stressed that this type of abuse is repeated in celebrations linked to football players and underlined the importance of making these cases visible and bringing them to justice.
Last year, Colombian striker Sebastián Villa was sentenced to two years and one month in prison for beating his wife and is also under investigation for alleged sexual abuse in 2021. Four Vélez Sarsfield players are awaiting trial for the alleged rape of a sports journalist in Tucumán, as are two youth players from the Godoy Cruz club. Thiago Almada, Montiel’s teammate in the Argentine national team, is also accused of gang rape in 2020.
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS América newsletter here and receive all the key information on current events in the region.
#Argentine #footballer #Gonzalo #Montiel #undergoes #key #test #case #investigates #sexual #abuse