Al Gallo
September 2, 2011
The defendant
was acquitted after being sentenced to six
months in prison for an SMS threat.
La
Razón from Buenos Aires reports that a member of the Armenian
community was accused of sending a threatening message to a fellow
countryman. The Chamber of Misdemeanours dealing with this case
declared the sentence void, highlighting that the message was in
another language and the translation made no sense.
The sentence of six months in prison against a man accused of a
"threat"
was overturned because the incident occurred through a text message in
a foreign language whose translation "makes no sense whatsoever".
The Chamber, with the signatures of judges Jorge Franza, Silvina Paz
and Marta Manes, cancelled the sentence handed down against an
individual accused of sending someone of his Armenian community, a
message via cell phone that said: "Ai gandon eli tnic helar diakt en
tun tanelu".
According to the Court translation it means: "Hey condom, get out of
your house so that they can take your corpse back to your home".
The incident occurred on April 7, 2010 at about 10.50pm, "at a time
when the complainant was at home."
The trial judge Gustavo Letner issued the sentence for "the crime of
threatening" but the Chamber understood that "the phrase, as it has
been translated, makes no sense," so "it would not establish a pledge
to cause future harm and even that this would depend on the will of
whoever allegedly issued the message".
"It is not known whether in their original language, it has a different
connotation that could give it the typical requirement described above,
so that it is doubtful whether the phrase entered in the text message,
has a threatening meaning" added the judges.
Adding to this, the court evaluated the existence of a dispute about a
debt where the accuser declared to be the victim of a scam. On the
other hand, the defendant said the victim had a work debt with him and
that very expensive tools had not been returned.
The judges felt that "the subjective requirement of malice or the
intention to instil fear in the victim that is required is not
conclusively proven because it was delivered within the ambit or a
conflictive relationship, which allows to cast doubt on this point.
Al Gallo is the Editor of Translation Reference. Google: Google+
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