Former civil servants and a businessman will be tried in another section of the Cuadernos case

It was a domino effect. After the Federal Chamber rejected a request by the defense of businessman Armando Loson to quash the cause of the notebooks of an expert who detected irregularities in the notes of the bus driver Oscar Centeno, instructed in another case, the federal judge Julien Ercolini decided to close the investigation of a group of defendants and commit them to trial. Among them, there is not only Loson. Also the former chief of staff Jean Abal Medina and his former private secretary Martin Larraburu. The list is completed by the former Planning Secretary Roberto Baratta and his collaborator, Nelson Lazarte, who have already been sent to trial for more facts.

According to the resolution, to which GlobeLiveMediaErcolini maintained that “the preliminary process served, more than enough, to assess the existence of merit for the purpose of supporting the common judgment, since the certain probability of the occurrence of the events denounced was established, and of the paternity and the participation therein of the accused herein”.

“It should be stated that with respect to the events which are the subject of this resolution, when ordering the proceedings against Loson, Baratta, Lazarte, Abal Medina and Larraburu, both this Court and the Superior Court have referred to the evidence allowing them to be considered as proven, the materiality of the illegal facts under investigation, as well as the responsibility of the defendants in them. alleged reasons which would convince me that the continuation of the trial in accordance with the established legal process could result in a specific prejudice, since their disagreement with the resolutions on the merits or with the terms of the charges would not be causal, in themselves, to proceed in the manner required,” the judge added.

A USB key found in the house of a secretary of former chief of staff Juan Abal Medina and the statement of repentance of José López –former secretary of public works– opened the door to investigate the money that La Cámpora received to finance their campaigns and different activities that would come from the illegal collection of Centeno’s trips.

At the time, Abal Medina told an inquiry that “in late July or early August 2013” he was contacted by Baratta. “He informed me that I had to coordinate with him the delivery of some eventual funds that he would collect from voluntary contributions,” he said. In this context, the former official explained that he had entrusted Larraburu with the “coordination with the said Baratta for the receipt of possible campaign contributions” and that coordinated its delivery with Juan Carlos “Chueco” Mazzon –at the time general coordinator of politico-institutional affairs of the presidential unit–, “who in turn, and depending on the case, orchestrated its dispatch to different parts of the country to be used according to the politico-partisan needs that the latter established”. “In no case did such a request seem to me inappropriate or inappropriate – I am referring to that of Baratta -, beyond informality, since at the time there was no element to doubt His origin”he claimed.

You may be interested Details of the statement by Juan Manuel Abal Medina in which he describes how the money was received to finance the electoral campaign

Judge Claudio Bonadio at the time investigated this leg and they were called to parade by Comodoro Py 2002 José María Ottavis, Eduardo de Pedro, Andrés Larroque, Julián Álvarez, Maximo Kirchner, business man Sergio Szpolsky and the mayors Ricardo Ivoskus there Enrique Garcia. But later, he understood that the case was not part of the illicit association and referred the case to the electoral justice, where the case was dismissed at the request of the prosecution.

Some of the businessmen who appeared in the notebooks succeeded in skipping the closure of the case that Bonadio was investigating and were referred to the electoral justice, justifying that the payments they had made were intended for the campaign. Loson brought this up and was unlucky. Ni Ángelo Calcaterra, cousin of former President Mauricio Macri. However, Calcaterra was brought to justice and Loson was not, which is why he launched a parallel complaint in which he denounced irregularities in Centeno’s notes where he was mentioned. Judge Marcelo Martínez De Giorgi ordered an expertise that verified the irregularities. With this, Loson requested the quashing of the notebooks cause which was today rejected in the Federal House, as previously reported GlobeLiveMedia.

You may be interested: An attempt to quash the case against Cristina Kirchner and businessmen for corruption notebooks failed

In this context, just a little later, Ercolini – who renewed his subrogation before the Federal Court 11 last week, through a lottery in the Federal Chamber – decided that this decision obliged him to return this part of the case in court. That’s how he signed it. It is that the prosecution in charge of Carlos Stornelli had promoted to send them to trial in 2019 when a large part of the case had been raised, but the situation of some people was pending.

These are the opposing defenses. Abal Medina requested his dismissal regarding the insistence that he was not linked to the criminal organization investigated in this case, since his actions were related to the receipt of funds in the pre-election and election periods in 2013, coinciding with partisan activity that has been attributed to you. “If it is understood that all the events concerning the distribution of funds related to the various electoral campaigns present a certain irregularity, it corresponds, as has happened for other defendants, that the electoral justice is the one that must establish the scope of their conduct,” it was insisted. He specifically cited the case of La Cámpora.

When analyzing the issue, Judge Ercolini considered that “the dissimilar treatment with other co-defendants alleged by the defense of Loson is not observed, since each specific situation has been assessed on the basis of the multiple elements of incorporated evidence that justified the various resolutions adopted, which also corresponds to dismissing the criticisms made in this sense by the defenses of Abal Medina and Larraburu”.

In line with what was expressed by the Federal Chamber, Ercolini added: “the oral trial is presented as the ideal forum for resolving divergent opinions around the accusations made to him”, where “orality, publicity, contradiction, immediacy, continuity are guaranteed which make this space the most appropriate for the discussion of controversial issues between the parties”. that there will be appeals, but sooner or later the case will reach the Federal Oral Court 7, where the file has already begun to take the first steps to reach a debate.

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