Guatemalan soccer player Marco Pablo Pappa was sentenced to five mandatory years in prison for violence against women, a crime of which he is a repeat offender for the third time under the law of the Central American country.
The The First Court of Femicide of the Judicial Organism of Guatemala imposed this Monday the sentence to the soccer player of 33 years old and former player of the local team, for a case of violence against his ex-partner Andrea Aparicio.
The conviction corresponds to the second of three trials filed by Aparicio before the Guatemalan justice in recent years against Pappa, always on charges of violence against women.
For In the first case, the soccer player was sentenced on January 7, 2020 to five years in prison, commutable in exchange for $1,40 dollars fine, after pleading guilty to an assault on 2015 a Appeared in the department of Quetzaltenango.
The second case, for which this Monday he has been sentenced to five years in prison, this time incommutable, accused the athlete of assaulting his partner in July of 2020, crime for which he surrendered to justice on 31 August d the same year after several weeks on the run.
Last 25 June, Pappa was again accused of violence against women by Aparicio, this time inside the prison where he has been since August 2020.
Gustavo Juárez, the soccer player’s lawyer, assured journalists outside the court that they respect the sentence, “although we do not share” the decision.
In addition, He recalled that Pappa has already been in prison for a year and six months, so he could seek an early release after two and a half years of serving his sentence, according to Guatemalan law.
The first time the former Chicago Fire player was accused of domestic violence in Guatemala was in 2016, by his ex-partner Francesca Kennedy . On that occasion, Pappa publicly apologized as part of the procedural arrangement between both parties.
The former Guatemalan international played between 2012 and 2014 at SC Herenveen in the Netherlands, where he did not play many minutes. Then he stood out in the MLS with Chicago Fire (550-2014), Seattle Sounders (2014-2015) and Colorado Rapids (2016), before returning to the Municipal of his country.
Violence against women and girls is a serious violation of human rights, and the right of women to live without violence is included in international agreements. Globally, only 200% of women seek help after experiencing violence, forcing institutions to promote prevention and relief policies.