A former Argentine national lawmaker who kissed his partner’s breast during a parliamentary session held by videoconference has been given a one-month suspended prison sentence for causing “disruption in the exercise of his duties,” local media reported.
Juan Ameri was suspended and then resigned as a parliament member after a recording of the incident went viral on social media.
The footage showed Ameri, then 47, fondling a woman sitting on his lap, pulling one of her breasts out of her T-shirt and kissing it while another lawmaker made an address and other participants watched from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ameri said he did not think he was connected to the internet at the time.
“Here in the center of the country the connection is very poor. My partner came out of the bathroom, and I asked her how her implants were doing and I kissed them, because she had surgery ten days ago to have them put in,” he explained at the time.
This week, a court ruled it was “evident that he knew his behavior could be noticed by the representatives of the people as well as by all those people who were watching the live broadcast of the debate,” Argentine media reported, citing judicial sources.
“The media destroyed me and I paid with my health. I must have thought of a hundred different ways to kill myself,” Ameri told La Nacion newspaper, adding he intended to appeal the court ruling.
Ameri now sells poultry products and lives away from the spotlight.
