After the discovery of remains in a house in Coghlan, a project is presented to waive the statute of limitations for homicides in which a body has not been found.

Representative Gerardo Milman presented a bill to the Lower House on Wednesday to waive the statute of limitations for homicides in which no body has been found.

The presentation came after it was discovered that in a house in the Coghlan neighborhood, adjacent to another where Gustavo Cerati lived, bricklayers found the buried remains of Diego Fernández Lima , a young man who had been missing since 1984 and who showed signs of having been murdered. Because of this, they requested the questioning of one of the house's inhabitants, Cristian Graf, who was a schoolmate as a teenager.

The statute of limitations , which in our country is regulated by Article 63 of the Penal Code, is one of the causes that extinguish the action ; that is, it allows that, after a certain period of time, the perpetrator of a crime can no longer be convicted of it . Currently, the Penal Code establishes that this period is 12 years in cases of simple homicide and 15 in cases of aggravated homicide , which begin to count from the moment the crime is committed.

Milman's project proposes modifying this article so that, in cases of homicide , the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution begins to run " from the moment the victim's body is found and said discovery is formally registered by the competent authority."

Furthermore, it proposes that in cases where the body is not found , the statute of limitations be suspended "until its actual discovery."

In his presentation, the PRO representative emphasized that his bill seeks to resolve a "specific and lacerating contradiction" that arises in homicide cases in which the body remains hidden "for years or decades," preventing justice from taking action before the deadline expires.

In this regard, Milman argues that " in homicides involving concealment of the body, this rule becomes a legal fiction that protects the perpetrator and violates society's right to justice."

Among the reasons for his proposal, the representative referred to the case of Diego Fernández Lima.

"This case brutally exposes the system's flaw: the statute of limitations began to run on a date when neither the courts, the family, nor society could even have known there was a crime to investigate. The procedural clock started ticking before the investigation was even possible ," Milman explained in his presentation.

The deputy also cited as an example the case of Miguel Bru , who disappeared in 1993 after reporting police abuse. His body was never found, and only those convicted were those convicted of unlawful deprivation of liberty.

Milman also recalled the case of Natalia Melmann , which occurred in 2001. "Although the body was found a few days later, judicial experience has revealed that deliberate concealment of the corpse is a common strategy to hinder criminal prosecution," Milman stated in his brief.

According to the presentation, this amendment also seeks to " deter the concealment of bodies as a strategy; ensure that time does not extinguish criminal prosecution before it can be initiated; protect the right of families to know the truth and obtain justice; and strengthen the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and public trust."

“Impunity isn't always born of corruption or inefficiency; it's often the result of poorly designed laws, and with this bill, we have the opportunity to correct a flaw that reality has painfully pointed out to us. Human life doesn't accept fictitious prescriptions. When it is taken away, society has the right to demand truth and justice, not procedural excuses, and with firm steps, we will ensure that this is the case,” Milman also stated.