Lázaro Báez during an oral trial.
(Credit: Judicial Information Center of Argentina).
(CNN Spanish) -
The Argentine businessman Lázaro Báez was closer to being able to access house arrest.
The Federal Chamber of Cassation on Monday granted a request from the defense and reversed the decision of an oral court that had denied Báez the benefit.
The businessman, a former partner of the Kirchner family, has been detained with preventive detention in a federal prison since April 2016. According to the laws in Argentina, the maximum term of the measure is up to three years.
Báez is tried in two oral and public trials for alleged money laundering and for alleged corruption in public works during the governments of Presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández.
In both processes, he had obtained his release from prison, but in a third pending trial for another case of alleged money laundering, he has been sentenced to house arrest.
The businessman always denied the accusations.
Upon being released by the Chamber of Cassation, the defense of the construction businessman stated that he cannot afford the bail set at about US $ 5 million to be released.
Therefore, it demands that the house arrest that the businessman had already been granted since March of this year becomes effective.
Now, the oral court that processes said file must order the release of Báez from the federal prison of Ezeiza and his house arrest.
Lazaro Baez
