The judges of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation Gustavo Hornos and Mariano Borinsky today they rejected the recusal that he presented against them Cristina Kirchner so that they do not intervene in the review of his sentence for the public works case. In addition, the magistrates accepted the excuse of their colleague Javier Carbajo not to intervene in the case.
Thus, Hornos and Borinsky will intervene in the case and Cassation must draw a new judge or judge to integrate the room instead of Carbajo. This raffle will be in the presence of Cristina Kirchner’s lawyers, Alberto Beraldi and Ary Llernovoy, as requested and Cassation accepted. But it won’t be right away.
The judges rejected “in limine” The recusal according to its 13-page resolution to which it agreed infobae. The defense of Cristina Kirchner maintained that they have already intervened in the case and that they do not have independence and partiality due to their visits to Mauricio Macri when he was president of the Nation. The same proposal was made by the defense of Nelson Periotiformer head of the National Highway Directorate also convicted in the public works case.
“The abstract affirmations outlined by the defenses, as grounds to seek the removal of the natural judges from the case, can only be rejected in light of the doctrine established by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in matters of independence of this Power Judicial”, Hornos and Borinsky said and added that their interventions in other stages of the case were as natural magistrates of the case and that this will be the first time they have resolved on the merits of the case.
On the other hand, they accepted that Carbajo not intervene in the case. Last February, the judge confirmed the conviction of Lázaro Báez in the money laundering case -the sentence was reduced from 12 to 10 years- and in his resolution he maintained that one of the preceding crimes of laundering was the public work he received during the Kirchnerism for his company Austral Construcciones. He said that although there was no conviction – when Báez received the penalty, the trial for the public works was in full swing – the prosecutions handed down were enough, since the law allows it, to affirm that the funds from the works were laundered. That ruling was also signed by Borinsky but he did not give an opinion on the public work.
With that, Carbajo understood that he had already given an opinion on public works and that he could not intervene in this way. “I warn that there are elements of evidence that I valued at the time of legitimizing the sentence handed down in case 3017/2013 (Nda: the money laundering file) regarding the accreditation of the preceding offense, in particular, in the dynamics of the allocation of public works and, more specifically, regarding the intervention of Lázaro Báez and Austral Construcciones in that illegal operation”, explained Carbajo. His colleagues agreed to leave. Cristina Kirchner’s defense had also challenged the magistrate.
What Cassation resolved today can be appealed by the defense of Cristina Kirchner and Periotti to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. But in the meantime the cause can move forward. A first step will be for Cassation to set a hearing to hear the arguments of the parties. When that happens, the judge who replaces Carbajo will be drawn by lot.
“Finally, attentive to the acceptance of Judge Carbajo’s excuse, the claim formulated by the private defense of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to witness the drawing of the judge of the CFCP who will act in her replacement; however, it must be channeled through the Presidency of this Chamber by virtue of the fact that the administrative office in charge of carrying it out depends on it,” the magistrates ruled in favor of the vice president’s proposal.
The case reached Cassation on appeal. The Federal Oral Court 2 sentenced last December Cristina Kirchner, Báez, Periotti, the former Secretary of Public Works Jose Lopez, and five former officials of Santa Cruz to sentences of between six and three years in prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office. And the former Minister of Federal Planning was acquitted Julio De Vidothe former officials of that portfolio Abel Fatala and Carlos Kirchner -cousin of former president Nestor Kirchner– and the former Santa Cruz official Hector Garro.
The convicts appealed their sentences and the prosecutor Diego Luciani the acquittals and the refusal to convict Cristina Kirchner for illicit association. In Cassation all parties maintained their appeals. The prosecutor Mario Villar He ratified that he will seek to worsen the sentence for the crime of illicit association. At the trial, Luciani had requested a 12-year prison sentence for the former president.
The expectation is that Cassation does not resolve this year of presidential elections if it confirms or revokes the sentence of the vice president, but that it remains for 2024.
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