Former nun sentenced to 20 years for clerical abuse, sex abuse cover-up

MENDOZA: A former Catholic nun was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in Argentina on Thursday over a notorious clerical abuse scandal involving a boarding school for hearing-impaired children.

Kumiko Kosaka, a Japanese national who is now aged 51, was convicted at her second trial of aggravated sexual abuse and of covering up for priests who abused children aged between four and 17.

The Provolo affair, so-called after the Antonio Provolo Institute in Mendoza, where dozens of children suffered horrific abuse for decades, rocked Argentina when it came to light a decade ago.

At the first trial held in 2019, two priests, a gardener and a former choir boy were given prison sentences of between ten and 45 years.

Revelations from those proceedings led to a second trial in 2023 of a group of nuns and female staff members accused of being complicit in, and of covering up the abuse.

All nine, including Kosaka, who was also accused of aggravated sexual abuse, were acquitted.

But in August, the Supreme Court of Mendoza province annulled her acquittal, leading to a new trial.

Reacting to Kosaka's conviction, Ariel Lizarraga, the father of one of the victims, said he was satisfied that he had been "able to obtain the justice we sought for my daughter and all the other victims of the Provolo affair."

Kosaka left the order that ran the institute after the first complaints of abuse emerged. The allegations led the facility's closure.

She remains free pending the outcome of legal challenges to the case but is barred from travelling outside Mendoza province.--AFP