Judge suspends investigation of Macri on espionage charges | United State

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – A court hearing in which former Argentine President Mauricio Macri was due to be investigated for allegedly being responsible for illegal spying of relatives of submarine sinking victims has been suspended because he has not been released from secret intelligence to be announced.

Pablo Lanos, Macri’s lawyer (2015-2019), told reporters that federal judge Martin Bava made a “grave mistake” that forced him to suspend the hearing in his court in Dolores, Buenos Aires province, and explained that the judge should ask the executive to examine Macri’s secret intelligence to summon him again to testify.

“Macari will continue to bring him to justice,” Lanos said of the judge’s actions. “What everyone needs to make clear is that this case is political persecution.”

Before the lawyer explained the reasons for the suspension of the hearing, Macri left the court of Bava in the city of Dolores with a smile, about 200 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, and got into a car.

Judge Macri is suspected of having infrequently controlled the movements of relatives of the 44 crew members who died in the sinking of the ARA San Juan submarine nearly four years ago, based on a complaint filed at the end of 2020 by the authorities of the Federal Intelligence Agency ( AFI).

But Macri’s lawyer said Bava was “acting with the speed that the electoral calendar dictates to him, not with caution and moderation,” and attributed to him a lack of objectivity and a politically motivated act.

The unsuccessful investigation of Macri occurred in the middle of the election campaign for the legislative elections, as the ruling coalition headed by President Alberto Fernandez will attempt to reverse the defeat it suffered in the open primaries in September – in which the candidates for MPs and MPs were. Senators were elected – in front of the political space that the former president has among his references.

According to the lawyer, the session began with reading the facts attributed to the former president, then the court clerk noted that “confidentiality was not available”, so it was suspended.

Macri had questioned the judge before entering the court. Here I am trying to make sense of this sudden recall, without reasons, in the middle of an election campaign. “We’re calm, we know what we’ve done,” the former president said at a podium set up by opposition leaders in Dolores.

The former president reiterated his innocence and indicated the judge is biased and acting for political reasons in an evangelistic speech a few weeks before the November 14 legislative elections, in which Fernandez will put his nearly two-year administration on review.

This was the first investigation of Macri, referring to the most powerful wing of the opposition to the government of Peronist President Alberto Fernandez, after he left the presidency. Previously, no two sessions were held for the same purpose, one of them because the former president was abroad.

Macri’s followers maintain that Bava, the alternate in the court of Dolores, had previously performed questionable acts as a judge. Macri attempted to appeal, but was rejected by a subordinate court, although he asked the judge to act with restraint.

The current government denied it was behind Macri’s summons and questioned his actions.

In the framework of the case, the judge considered the case of Gustavo Arribas and Silvia Majdalani, the former head of the Air Force Intelligence Service and the second in charge of that institution during the Macri government, respectively, without preventive detention.

According to the lawyers for the families of the crew members, illegal espionage has been proven and the judge is seeking to determine whether the former chief was responsible.

“A large number of documents, addressed to then-President Macri, were found, comprehensively describing the things we would have said, suggested and asked, not only in the tone of narration but also by transcribing the entire sentences we said in the and counsel for the plaintiff in the case.

In his latest ruling, the judge noted that “intelligence documents embody the survey, collection and analysis of sensitive information about relatives of crew members.” Six events were cited as evidence of illegal espionage.

The six facts that would prove the irregular maneuvers – such as photos of relatives collected without warrant – were found at the AFI delegation in Mar del Plata, a port city 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires where the submarine base was also located..

In the demonstrations that took place in that town, relatives of the crew members expressed their demands for the disappearance of the ship.

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