Another vacancy at Comodoro Py: landmark judge turned 75 and failed to get government approval to continue

The day came, but not the call the judge expected: Edward Riggi, historic member of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation, He celebrates his 75th birthday this Thursday, the deadline set by the national Constitution to remain in office. The only thing that would have interrupted this mandate would have been for the Senate to validate it for five more years, as it has done in dozens of cases. Same as revealed GlobeLiveMedia last December, it would have served the executive to send his name to the Upper House, at least so that it could be interpreted as a tacit endorsement of the request until the moment of the definitions. But none of that happened.

While on the first floor of Comodoro Py everything was expected in the last hours, there was silence in the official offices. The file to analyze his revalidation had been opened last October and published in the Official Journal. This has caused some concern in the toughest sectors of Kirchnerism, who criticize the judge for his decisions related to human rights causes. During these hours, some speculated that they could endure it. “The lesser evil”, they slipped.

Riggi began working in the judiciary in 1966. He served on the Supreme Court of Justice and in 1978 he took office as a judge in economic criminal matters. With the creation of Casación, Riggi landed on the first floor of Comodoro Py. There he intervened in cases against former President Menem such as arms sales to Croatia and Ecuador and bounties. He voted there for the dismissal of the former head of state.

A resolution signed by him and other colleagues also put a damper on the “eavesdropping” cause during the administration of Mauricio Macri in the city of Buenos Aires. He also signed the majority vote that again imprisoned businessmen Cristóbal López and Fabián De Sousa in the Oil Combustible affair, which brought Alberto Fernández, when he was a presidential candidate, to say that some judges were going to have to explain their decisions.

“Nothing to report,” they replied GlobeLiveMedia the sources consulted in the field of Justice when they were questioned in the last hours on the future of the judge. Riggi worked in January and was off for the whole month of February. He had to return on March 3 pending a definition of his situation. But the tic tac has advanced until today.

“Just as a president, a legislator or a governor remains in office for four years and ends, except re-election, the judges last in our functions until 75 years, except revalidation”, summarized one of the magistrates of Comodoro Py at the time of the definitions. “The Constitution kills the regulations,” said another of his colleagues. Most of his Cassation colleagues gave him their written support to continue, he was able to know Infobase.

Riggi arrived like that on his birthday: he will have to say goodbye to the post. Now will come the formal procedures to formalize the news in the official distributions.

With his departure, Riggi leaves a coveted post at the Retirement Courts. In this court, she is not the only one. There is already an open competition to replace the judge Liliana Catucci, another historic cassation which in September 2021 ended up resigning after a court decision in administrative litigation rejected a proposal for suspension.

The cassation has 13 members. From now on, there will be 11. And we will have to see how room III of the Cassation, which Riggi has integrated, is integrated. Another of his colleagues in this room, Juan Carlos Gemignani, is on leave. The room is chaired by Mariano Borinsky, who is deputy in this room, as he also occupies his original office in room IV of the body.

as much as he could tell GlobeLiveMedia, in this room, there are key causes: the gate of the olive trees, where President Alberto Fernández and his partner, Fabiola Yañez, accepted financial compensation for having organized a birthday party in the presidential villa in the midst of a pandemic; one of the causes Odebrecht, the cause of the court table which splashes the government of Mauricio Macri or a file where the Barrick Gold for tax evasion. Also some sections of the case notebooks. And the future of the cause Operative Smurf. At that time, Riggi was the judge who had to give his vote to define the request for recusal against his colleague Carlos Mahiques in the case ARA San Juanpromoted by relatives of the victims after the trip to Lago Escondido.

There are already many seats left vacant in the courts where politics matters most. There will be two places in Cassation, but four in first instance. As GlobeLiveMedia revealed last week, Federal Judge Luis Rodriguez also announced his resignation to retire. The places left on courts 12, 11 and 6 by Sergio Torres, Claudio Bonadio and Rodolfo Canicoba Corral are also not occupied. And the number increases if, in addition, oral courts are taken into account.

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