Lucia Salinas
02/09/2020 - 18:16
- Clarín.com
- Politics
The debate was arduous. It lasted more than eleven hours and the result ended up adjusted but beneficial for Kirchnerism. On February 22, 2013, 39 senators backed the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, closing ranks behind the argument of then President Cristina Kirchner, who maintained and still does, that the Covenant was necessary to unlock "a paralyzed cause . " Less than two years later it would become the complaint that former prosecutor Alberto Nisman made for aggravated cover-up against the vice president. The cause is raised to trial and on the list of witnesses, Cristina asked that all the senators who gave the "yes" on the premises be cited. Aim for Michelangelo Pichetto is one of them.
The Federal Oral Court 8 (TOF 8) is responsible for carrying out the trial for the case that began with the complaint that the former prosecutor Nisman made on January 14, 2015, four days before he was found lifeless in his bathroom apartment in Puerto Madero. After an intricate journey in federal justice, the case was reopened and instructed by Judge Claudio Bonadio , who died last week.
On December 7, 2017, Bonadio asked for the former president’s lawlessness and pretrial detention that the TOF 8 left without effect last December. She was prosecuted for "treason to the Fatherland (this crime was dismissed by the Court of Appeals), aggravated cover-up and hindrance of a functional act", all linked to the pact with Iran as a supposed benefit for those accused of the AMIA attack. According to Justice, the former president and her officials designed a "criminal plan" to "give impunity" to the Iranians responsible for blasting the Jewish mutual.
The prosecution also reached the late former chancellor Héctor Timerman, Eduardo Zuain, Oscar Parrilli, Carlos Zannini, Angelina Abbona, Juan Martín Mena, Andrés Larroque, Jorge A. Khalil, Luis A. D´Elía and Fernando Esteche.
For Justice, the Pact with Iran was intended to allow Iranian citizens identified as responsible for the AMIA attack “to be able to withdraw from Justice's action - by granting Interpol sufficient tools so that the red index notifications that weighed regarding the Iranian citizens lost virtuality ”. Thus, they were released from "all criminal responsibility for these facts - through the creation of a Truth Commission - and through this, introduce an alternative hypothesis."
This accusatory picture is the one that raised Bonadio to oral trial and that has the TOF 8 two years ago. The stage in which the prosecution in charge of Marcelo Colombo and the lawyers of the eleven defendants present witnesses and complementary evidence is over . Judges must evaluate all documentation, requests made and decide what other measures will be promoted and the list of witnesses they will accept. It will be then when the Court will be in a position to set the start date of the trial.
Cristina, the main defendant in this file , presented an extensive list of witnesses for the trial that TOF 8 will analyze to determine who will be included in the testimony stage.
That list, according to judicial sources confirmed to Clarín , is made up of the 39 senators who approved the premises in February 2013, the Memorandum. That measure that always stood out in his defense the former president, voted without any modification and the speeches that were heard in favor, responded to the proposal of the Casa Rosada. He never made progress because Iran did not treat him in his own parliament.
Daniel Filmus , one of those required by the vice president, at that time said: “We believe it is necessary to unlock the cause. The easiest thing is to leave everything as it is, but the memorandum is an effort so that there is effectively no impunity. ”He was then the president of the Foreign Relations Commission and an informing member of the ruling party.
Among the senators who were then official, there is also Pichetto, candidate for vice president of Mauricio Macri. In that lit session he said that the Covenant was "the way to find the truth": "This is an attempt to open that way, otherwise we will be accompanied every year to the families of the victims in the tributes." If Justice cites it, Pichetto is obliged to appear.
Cristina also suggested that they be cited ambassadors and diplomats who were linked to the Pact with Iran. TOF 8 expects the Court to provide more resources to advance the case, "otherwise it will be very difficult to start the trial this year ," a judicial source explained to Clarin.
