Post by scumbuster on Dec 3, 2019 5:32:31 GMT -5
Cristina Fernandez Tells Argentine Court She’s Victim of Persecution
BUENOS AIRES – Former Argentine President and current Vice President-elect Cristina Fernandez appeared in a Buenos Aires court on Monday and said she was a victim of persecution at the hands of outgoing President Mauricio Macri.
The 66-year-old Fernandez, who served as Argentina’s president from 2007 to 2015, said the corruption trial, which centers on the alleged improper handling of funds for a public works project in the southern province of Santa Cruz that benefited companies controlled by Lazaro Baez, was a “master class” in judicial persecution.
“The role played in different areas by the technical and non-technical areas of the government in putting together this systematic plan is what is known as lawfare,” Fernandez, who is the widow of President Nestor Kirchner, said.
On Oct. 27, Fernandez, who has been charged in a dozen cases, was on the Peronist Party ticket that won the presidential election, making Alberto Fernandez Argentina’s next head of state.
Monday’s hearing, the first in which the vice president-elect has testified, started on May 21.
Prosecutors allege that Fernandez steered public works contracts in Santa Cruz, where Kirchner was born and launched his political career, to companies controlled by Baez, a close supporter of the political power couple.
The former president and several other individuals, including Baez and former Public Works Minister Julio De Vido, both of whom are being held in prison on other charges, of criminal conspiracy and fraud in connection with the awarding of the public works contracts.
Prosecutors allege that during her time in office, Fernandez tried to illegally gain control over millions of dollars via the awarding of public works contracts plagued by “multiple irregularities.”
“I, who am accused of criminal conspiracy, that is, of being the leader of a gang, who met to commit crimes in an undetermined and indiscriminate manner, can they tell me the places of the meetings?” Fernandez asked.
The leader of the Kirchner wing of the Peronist Party said the “outgoing administration” set up a “judicial desk” where they even decided “who gets arrested, who doesn’t get arrested, which businessman you had to squeeze to get companies out of him, and later, when they got angry with other businessmen, they went after more businessmen.”
“First, they went after one, then after another, and when they went after me, it was already too late,” the politician, who is the subject of several arrest warrants that have never been served because she had parliamentary immunity as a sitting senator, said.
Fernandez, as she had in documents filed previously with the courts handling her cases, said she was innocent and that the charges were unfounded.
“During multiple hearings, briefs, we had asked that all public works in the Argentine Republic be audited and our request was systematically denied,” the former president said.
Members of different groups, such as the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, took seats in the courtroom to show their support for Fernandez.
“If a gang was really formed, what need did I have to bring in a construction businessman, if I had all the businessmen of the republic?” Fernandez told the federal court in Buenos Aires.
Fernandez criticized the way the arrest warrants were issued for her, saying that she spent two years without parliamentary immunity out of her own choice and was later accused in the media of running for a Senate seat to protect herself.
The vice president-elect said that on May 18, three days before the trial started, she proposed to Alberto Fernandez, who served as Cabinet chief under both her and her husband, that they run for the presidency because the Macri administration “had aligned itself with the judges.”
Fernandez reviewed the measures taken against her, including freezes placed on bank accounts and real estate, and forcing her to pick between a widow’s pension and a presidential pension, by the courts.
“They also interfered with the estate of Nestor Kirchner, something unseen before. The estate of a person who died has been intervened ... these are measures that clearly violated existing laws, the rule of law, and also the rights of people,” Fernandez said.
The former president opened her testimony by ripping the court for rejecting her request to televise the hearing.
The court had allowed the May 21 hearing and subsequent hearings to be televised.
On Monday morning, defense attorney Carlos Berladi filed a motion with the court, asking once again that Fernandez’s testimony be televised.
Last week, the defense made a similar request, but the motion was rejected by a federal criminal court, which ruled that the parts of Fernandez’s testimony that could be broadcast by media outlets had already been determined by the courts.
“I should underscore that the live broadcast of the appearance in question is the only alternative that guarantees that the community, or at least all those who are interested, can learn about what is happening in court, directly and in real time,” Beraldi said in his motion.
www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2486395&CategoryId=14093
BUENOS AIRES – Former Argentine President and current Vice President-elect Cristina Fernandez appeared in a Buenos Aires court on Monday and said she was a victim of persecution at the hands of outgoing President Mauricio Macri.
The 66-year-old Fernandez, who served as Argentina’s president from 2007 to 2015, said the corruption trial, which centers on the alleged improper handling of funds for a public works project in the southern province of Santa Cruz that benefited companies controlled by Lazaro Baez, was a “master class” in judicial persecution.
“The role played in different areas by the technical and non-technical areas of the government in putting together this systematic plan is what is known as lawfare,” Fernandez, who is the widow of President Nestor Kirchner, said.
On Oct. 27, Fernandez, who has been charged in a dozen cases, was on the Peronist Party ticket that won the presidential election, making Alberto Fernandez Argentina’s next head of state.
Monday’s hearing, the first in which the vice president-elect has testified, started on May 21.
Prosecutors allege that Fernandez steered public works contracts in Santa Cruz, where Kirchner was born and launched his political career, to companies controlled by Baez, a close supporter of the political power couple.
The former president and several other individuals, including Baez and former Public Works Minister Julio De Vido, both of whom are being held in prison on other charges, of criminal conspiracy and fraud in connection with the awarding of the public works contracts.
Prosecutors allege that during her time in office, Fernandez tried to illegally gain control over millions of dollars via the awarding of public works contracts plagued by “multiple irregularities.”
“I, who am accused of criminal conspiracy, that is, of being the leader of a gang, who met to commit crimes in an undetermined and indiscriminate manner, can they tell me the places of the meetings?” Fernandez asked.
The leader of the Kirchner wing of the Peronist Party said the “outgoing administration” set up a “judicial desk” where they even decided “who gets arrested, who doesn’t get arrested, which businessman you had to squeeze to get companies out of him, and later, when they got angry with other businessmen, they went after more businessmen.”
“First, they went after one, then after another, and when they went after me, it was already too late,” the politician, who is the subject of several arrest warrants that have never been served because she had parliamentary immunity as a sitting senator, said.
Fernandez, as she had in documents filed previously with the courts handling her cases, said she was innocent and that the charges were unfounded.
“During multiple hearings, briefs, we had asked that all public works in the Argentine Republic be audited and our request was systematically denied,” the former president said.
Members of different groups, such as the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, took seats in the courtroom to show their support for Fernandez.
“If a gang was really formed, what need did I have to bring in a construction businessman, if I had all the businessmen of the republic?” Fernandez told the federal court in Buenos Aires.
Fernandez criticized the way the arrest warrants were issued for her, saying that she spent two years without parliamentary immunity out of her own choice and was later accused in the media of running for a Senate seat to protect herself.
The vice president-elect said that on May 18, three days before the trial started, she proposed to Alberto Fernandez, who served as Cabinet chief under both her and her husband, that they run for the presidency because the Macri administration “had aligned itself with the judges.”
Fernandez reviewed the measures taken against her, including freezes placed on bank accounts and real estate, and forcing her to pick between a widow’s pension and a presidential pension, by the courts.
“They also interfered with the estate of Nestor Kirchner, something unseen before. The estate of a person who died has been intervened ... these are measures that clearly violated existing laws, the rule of law, and also the rights of people,” Fernandez said.
The former president opened her testimony by ripping the court for rejecting her request to televise the hearing.
The court had allowed the May 21 hearing and subsequent hearings to be televised.
On Monday morning, defense attorney Carlos Berladi filed a motion with the court, asking once again that Fernandez’s testimony be televised.
Last week, the defense made a similar request, but the motion was rejected by a federal criminal court, which ruled that the parts of Fernandez’s testimony that could be broadcast by media outlets had already been determined by the courts.
“I should underscore that the live broadcast of the appearance in question is the only alternative that guarantees that the community, or at least all those who are interested, can learn about what is happening in court, directly and in real time,” Beraldi said in his motion.
www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2486395&CategoryId=14093