The justice system is investigating the rape complaint filed by a 24-year-old woman against four players of the Argentine soccer club Velez Sarsfield after the match played on Saturday with Atletico de Tucuman, which has led to their temporary suspension by the sports institution.
Those denounced are goalkeeper Sebastián Sosa, winger Braian Cufré, forward Abiel Osorio and midfielder José Ignacio Florentín, Vélez reported on Thursday on its X account, formerly Twitter. Sosa is of Uruguayan nationality and Florentín is Paraguayan.
Velez explained that it decided to “preventively separate” the players from the professional squad in the framework of the “protocol of action in cases of gender-based violence.”
The board of directors of one of the most important clubs in Argentina – 10 times champion of the local league and winner of the Copa Libertadores in 1994 – also said that it placed itself at the “complete disposal of the justice system and of the complainant”.
The Prosecutor’s Unit for Crimes against Sexual Integrity Number 1 of Tucumán, a city located some 1,200 kilometers north of Buenos Aires, is in charge of the investigation into the complaint filed the day before by the woman with the local police. The woman pointed to the four players as participants in the gang rape that allegedly took place in the early hours of Sunday morning at a hotel in that city, hours after the match against Atlético de Tucumán, which ended in a goalless draw.
The identity of the young woman, who is a journalist, has not been disclosed. The woman went with her lawyer Patricia Neme to file the complaint.
According to the alleged victim’s account, Sosa sent her messages through the Instagram application to invite her to the Hilton Hotel, which she accepted by arriving there in the early hours of Sunday morning and “going directly up to room 407, where the player was already waiting for her.”
The complaint goes on to state that upon entering the room, the woman noticed that Cufré, Osorio and Florentín were also there, “with whom she began to share a few cans of beer” and “then they offered her Fernet”.
“After having a few drinks she began to feel bad, very dizzy, so she lay down on one of the beds as if she was numb, it was then that without any consent they sexually abused her, later being hours 05:30 approximately when she felt a little better she managed to ask for an Uber and retired to her home”, concluded the complaint.
The Prosecution Unit has ordered the seizure of the clothes that the alleged victim gave to the police and the review of the hotel’s security cameras.
Vélez said that he is willing to “provide all the relevant information and elements to be able to contribute to the investigation and clarification of the case and to determine the corresponding responsibilities”.
This is not the first time that similar allegations have occurred involving players from Velez and other Argentine clubs.
In late 2020, a woman accused Thiago Almada and Miguel Brizuela of sexual abuse during a private party, and both were dismissed from the squad by Velez and charged by the courts. In February 2021, the club announced their reinstatement to the squad when referring to the inclusion of new evidence, expert reports and testimonies in the legal case.
One of the most well-known cases involved the Colombian Sebastián Villa, when he played for Boca Juniors. In October, an Argentine appeals court confirmed the elevation to trial of the case against the current player of Beroe of Bulgaria for the alleged sexual abuse of a young girl in 2021.