#Argentina #Mendoza – A provincial court in western Argentina sentenced former Catholic nun Kumiko Kosaka to 20 years in prison on September, 24, 2026, for sexually abusing deaf children and assisting priests who preyed on students at a now-closed boarding school.
The Tribunal Penal Colegiado No. 2 in Mendoza found Kosaka, a 51-year-old Japanese-born Argentine citizen, guilty of seven offenses involving five victims at the Instituto Antonio Próvolo in Luján de Cuyo. Judges determined that she committed some of the acts herself and acted as an accomplice in others between 2005 and 2016. Prosecutors had sought a 22-year term. The court also barred her from working with minors for 10 years.
Kosaka did not go to prison immediately. Because the sentence was not yet final and appeals remained pending, judges allowed her to remain free under restrictions. She had to surrender her passport, stay in Mendoza province, establish a fixed address there, and post substantial bail.
The ruling reversed an earlier outcome. In 2023 a court acquitted Kosaka and eight other female staff members of related charges. In August 2026 the Mendoza Supreme Court overturned only her acquittal, saying the prior panel had examined the evidence in fragments rather than as a whole. A new tribunal then imposed the 20-year sentence.
The Próvolo scandal first erupted in late 2016 when former students described years of abuse at the church-run institute for deaf and hearing-impaired children, many of them from poor families. The school closed soon afterward. In 2019 a court convicted two priests, Horacio Corbacho and Nicola Corradi, along with a gardener and another staff member. Corbacho received 45 years and Corradi 42½ years. Corradi died in 2021.
Kosaka, who had worked at the institute from the mid-2000s until about 2012 and oversaw boarding students, was arrested in May 2017 after turning herself in. She had left the religious order after the accusations surfaced. She spent more than five years in preventive detention before later being released pending trial. Throughout the proceedings she denied wrongdoing.
Victims’ relatives described the September 2026 sentence as long-delayed accountability. Prosecutor Alejandro Iturbide said the court was repairing “huge damage.” The case remained one of Argentina’s most closely watched clerical-abuse prosecutions. Kosaka’s lawyers indicated they would continue to challenge the conviction.
Cover Image: Kumiko Kosaka, a former nun from the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary Most Holy of the Garden (Hermanas del Huerto)
