Sobrero acquitted of train arson

A railway union leader was yesterday acquitted by a federal court of the deliberate burning of train carriages in May 2011 at two stations on the Sarmiento line.

Rubén “Pollo” Sobrero was acquitted by the court in San Martín, Greater Buenos Aires, due to a lack of evidence in the case.

Sobrero was arrested on September 30, 2011, by the judge then presiding over the case, Juan Manuel Yalj, accused of having instigated the burning of trains at the Haedo and Ciudadela stations on the Sarmiento train line on May 2, 2011. At the time of the incident, the company Trains of Buenos Aires (TBA) was running the line although the company was later placed under a state trusteeship following the Once train crash on February 22, 2012.

Sobrero was released after spending four days in prison, although the investigation against him continued. In December, judge Alicia Vence, currently presiding over the case, closed the investigation due to a lack of new evidence. In his statements before the court, Sobrero had described himself as “not a criminal, but a worker who refuses to shut his mouth and speaks his mind against the government and TBA.”

Also acquitted were brothers Guillermo and Fernando Díaz and Hernán Azson, who were also imprisoned and accused of having set the trains alight. The situation for Allan Skrobacki and Victor Damián Martínez, however, is more complex, as it was announced in May 2012 that they would be tried for having set the train carriages alight in the stations.

The union figure yesterday celebrated the decision on his Twitter account by firing off a message to Senator Aníbal Fernández, who was Cabinet Chief at the time of the incidents.

“Sorry @anibalfernandez, go and hide in the trunk of your car,” said Sobrero, in reference to a case against Fernández when he was mayor of Quilmes and had allegedly escaped hidden in the trunk of a car.

Herald with DyN, Telam