Coronavirus in Argentina: Alberto Fernández denies that he wants a massive release of prisoners and says that the problem "is in the hands of the Courts"

04/29/2020 - 16:52

• Clarín.com
• Politics

Amid the controversy, President Alberto Fernández denied on Wednesday that his administration is preparing a "massive release" of prisoners due to the coronavirus pandemic and assured that "the solution to this problem is in the hands of the courts."

In addition, he stated that there is " a media campaign" to install that the Government favors "the freedom of those who have been convicted."

My opposition to exercising the power of pardon is known. I say this at a time when a media campaign is unleashed accusing the government that I preside of wanting to favor the freedom of those who have been sentenced

“Argentina, like everyone else, faces a pandemic of enormous proportions. The risk of contagion is potentiated in places of high human concentration, so prisons become a favorable environment for the spread of the disease, "the head of state remarked on his Twitter account.

And he added: "International organizations such as the United Nations Organization or the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have formulated recommendations to avoid that overcrowding in prisons puts the lives of inmates at risk."

In this sense, he noted that “in the world, many governments have provided liberties trying to minimize that risk. Some have commuted sentences, others have pardoned convictions and others have left the matter in the hands of the Justice ”.

Focusing on Argentina, he said that "the solution to the problem is in the hands of the courts." "It is the natural judges who, if they consider it necessary, have freedoms. Cassation chambers have made very timely recommendations to deal with the problem, "he said.

Fernández, who hours before endorsed the home prison for common prisoners, stated that he made this clarification "in the face of the malicious campaign that has been unleashed in networks and the media, leading the public to believe that the Government is preparing a massive exit of detained people under criminal proceedings ”.

"I regret the behavior of those who, in circumstances as crucial as those we live in, show their unappreciable human condition, making society uneasy at a time when it most needs to be contained," he concluded.