Gustavo Arribas declared: "when politics enters through the door, justice leaves through the window"

Alexander Alfie

10/09/2020 17:51

• Clarín.com

• Politics

Updated 10/09/2020 5:51 PM

As Silvia Majdalani did yesterday,

of 24 political leaders, journalists, union members and relatives of former president Mauricio Macri, between 2018 and 2019. But he acknowledged that sometimes he

. I hope I am wrong, "said Arribas.

The former director general of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) assured this Friday that they

of the current leadership of the official body.

"When politics comes through the door, justice comes out the window," he said.

The former Macrista official spoke in his investigative statement for a little more than half an hour, by videoconference, but did not accept questions, because he

to investigate this case of the federal judge of Lomas de Zamora, Juan Pablo Augé or of the prosecutors Cecilia Incardona and Santiago Eyherabide.

"Once that is resolved, I will request an extension of the preliminary statement and I will answer the questions that are asked of me," he said at the beginning of his presentation.

And he added: "

. I never committed or ordered to commit any crime, I never ordered any type of illegal espionage on any person, just as I did not order the commission of a crime or the performance of illegal intelligence activities. Nor did I receive any order or order of this nature, "Arribas said.

He also stated that

with other intelligence organizations, within the framework of the new "international insertion" that the government of Mauricio Macri had established.

And to the modernization of the AFI, since "when I took over the Agency, I received an organization with serious deficiencies in structure and organization, lacking in technology and totally unrelated to the international intelligence community," said the former Macrista official.

The investigative statement of Gustavo Arribas, by videoconference.

Arribas mentioned the organization chart of the AFI, so that it is clearly established in which Directorate illegal espionage activities took place and who depended on that Directorate of the AFI.

That is, those who were in charge of the Operational Directorate of Counterintelligence,

"There is no evidence there that can suggest or show that I have received any type of illegal information. And this is so because it never happened," Arribas added.

Is that, unlike Majdalani,

directly

in the illegal espionage operations.

The former "Lord 5" of the macrista AFI declared at 10.30 in the morning.

He was accompanied by his lawyer Alejandro Pérez Chada, who has also represented him in other court cases.

Gustavo Arribas is charged as

that illegally spied on 24 political leaders, journalists, union members and relatives of former President Mauricio Macri, between 2018 and 2019, such as Cristina Kirchner, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Hugo Alconada Mon, Hugo and Pablo Moyano, Diego Santilli, Ramón Indart, Florencia Macri and her partner Salvatore Pica, among other victims.

Gustavo Arribas and Silvia Majdalani, former head and number two of the AFI during the government of Mauricio Macri.

Prosecutors Incardona and Eyherabide detailed in the investigation request some of the evidence that appears in the file, such as

, carried out by AFI agents. 

Arribas questioned his inclusion as the head of an alleged illicit association.

And he gave as an example the case of espionage against the journalist of the newspaper

, where the espionage occurred a year after the former head of the AFI was dismissed by the Justice, in a case that had been initiated some time ago by a newspaper article by Alconada Mon, "where it was intended to link me with the Odebrecht case," Arribas said.

And he added: "So, although I would never have ordered the carrying out of illegal espionage on the journalist Alconada Mon, as well as on any other person, it

in the professional work of this journalist ".

Judge Augé has already prosecuted Arribas, Majdalani, Ruiz and Coste for illegally spying on the home of Cristina Kirchner and the Instituto Patria,

to the illegal espionage of 24 political leaders, journalists, union members and relatives of Macri.

Prosecutors consider that, also in this case, Arribas and the other three former AFI chiefs organized the illegal espionage activities, which were later carried out by ex-agents of the macrista AFI.

And that

, were sent by former intelligence agents to Susana Martinengo, former coordinator of Presidential Documentation, with whom they even met at the Casa Rosada.

This Friday, with Arribas's statement, the round of inquiries to the 24 accused of illegal espionage ended, so in the next few days their procedural situation will be resolved.