Lucia Salinas
07/13/2020 - 20:28
- Clarín.com
- Politics
After the federal judge Marcelo Martínez De Giorgi dictated the lack of merit on Cristina Kirchner in a section of the case of the bribery notebooks regarding alleged bribes to intercede with Hugo Chávez in the context of the emergency unleashed by the expropriation of the plant The Sint steel company from Techint, the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) decided not to appeal said measure, following the criteria of the prosecutor Carlos Stornelli, who had also not opposed the lack of merit that also reached company executives and former Julio officials. De Vido, Roberto Baratta, Claudio Uberti, among others.
On September 17, 2018, Judge Bonadio had prosecuted the vice president along with Techint director Luis Betnaza, for the crime of active bribery in a section of the Cuadernos case that focused only on the alleged illegal payments that the Techint Group would have made in relation to his company “Siderúrgica de Orinoco” –SIDOR- that was in Venezuela. In the case, it was initially pointed out that De Vido had asked the company for money in exchange for expediting the payment of compensation for the expropriation of SIDOR, which Chávez had carried out in 2008.
In this regard, Judge Martínez De Giorgi had considered that it was "essential to deepen the investigation in order to determine if the payments made by the" Techint Group "could be linked to emergency reasons in the context of the nationalization of the SIDOR company in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela".
Consequently, since the active bribery -that is to say, who pays the bribery- was not confirmed, the judge considered that the lack of merit should be ruled on Cristina Kirchner and her former officials of the defunct Ministry of Planning, since the collection of bribes (passive bribery).
This criterion of the magistrate was not appealed by the prosecutor of the case, Carlos Stornelli, and this Monday the OA followed that same attitude.
The OA led by Feliz Crous is a complainant in this investigation, as is the Financial Information Unit (FIU). If the latter state agency reiterates the same criteria, the resolution issued by Judge Martínez De Giorgi will be final.
The anti-corruption body had already made another decision favorable to the former president by withdrawing as a plaintiff in the case of Los Sauces SA and Hotesur, the two family companies of the Kirchners accused of being used for money laundering maneuvers. According to the cause, it is estimated that approximately $ 200 million was laundered. These two files were elevated to oral trials and are located in the Federal Oral Court 5 (TOF 5), but once the oral debate begins, the OA will not be there as an accusing party.
