Mendoza’s Judicial Blockchain: 20 Years’ Imprisonment, 10 Years’ Disqualification and an Unfinished Ledger

The news item that reached my desk carried a tag that said ‘football’. But inside the story there was no football: no club, no formation, no transfer fee. There was a courtroom in Mendoza, Argentina; a school for deaf minors; and the conviction of a Catholic religious sister, Kumiko Kosaka, for the sexual abuse of students at the Instituto Antonio Próvolo. The tag was wrong. That was the first fact, and in my old ledger the first fact is the biggest fact. I have learned to read judicial processes like a blockchain: each event is a block, each document is a seal, each ruling is linked to the previous block. If one block is false, the whole chain stops. In 2026, when I travelled with Liverpool’s press party for a full season, I kept a handwritten register of 47 away trips: bus departure times, hotel allocations, warm-up routines, unlisted training absences. So when the Mendoza case reached me, I instinctively sorted dates, rulings and sources. The Instituto Antonio Próvolo in Mendoza was a residential school for deaf and hearing-impaired children. The same name is linked to an institute in Verona, Italy, where a priest named Corradi faced similar accusations and died under house arrest in 2026. After complaints surfaced in 2026, the Mendoza institute was closed. The victims were minors and deaf students—a doubly vulnerable group. The report says abuse occurred frequently at weekends, during periods of low supervision, and that victims were threatened to prevent disclosure. In 2026, Kosaka was acquitted. The Mendoza provincial supreme court later revoked that acquittal, ruling that the evidence had been analysed in a ‘fragmented manner’, and ordered a fresh review. In the retrial, Tribunal Penal Colegiado No. 2 de Mendoza convicted her and imposed 20 years’ imprisonment plus a 10-year disqualification from the care, education or custody of minors. Prosecutors and victims’ representatives had sought 22 years. Crucially, the sentence is not final. The defence maintains innocence and is appealing. Kosaka remains at liberty but cannot leave Mendoza and has surrendered her passport. The 10-year disqualification is the most analytically interesting part of the ruling: it is not only punishment, but prevention—it closes the access pathway through which the abuse allegedly occurred. The word ‘historic’ in the headline is editorial language, not court language. The ruling is rare, but it is not final. There is also a gap between the individual conviction and the wider institutional picture: the article itself mentions priests, workers and others connected to a broader scheme, yet the news focus remains on one person. Missing details include the victims’ ages, the precise charges, whether co-defendants were tried together, and whether any canonical or independent inquiry has been conducted into the institute. The stated reversal date of August 2026 is inconsistent with the 2026 acquittal and needs verification. My ledger says wait; the corridor says now. In this case, the chain of justice is still unfinished.