An oral court released the union leader of the UOCRA 'Pata' Medina on bail

Daniel Santoro

02/18/2021 7:50 PM

• Clarín.com

• Politics

Updated 02/18/2021 7:58 PM

The federal oral court 2 of La Plata

granted this Thursday the release on bail

to the former leader of the local section of the UOCRA, Juan Pablo "Pata" Medina, confirmed judicial sources. 

In the resolution, published by the newspaper El Día de La Plata, it is detailed that release is granted under jury bond (arts. 316, 317, inc. 5, and concordant of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Nation and arts. 221 and 222 of the Federal Criminal Procedure Code).

The resolution also orders to

maintain the prohibition to leave the country and the prohibition to carry out union activities.

'Pata' Medina, 67, has been under house arrest since 2017 in a case in which he is prosecuted for the alleged crimes of "illicit association and money laundering," which he is processing in the federal courts of Quilmes.

The case that was initiated against Medina is for "aggravated coercion and compulsion to strike", although he remains detained for the crime of illicit association and money laundering, which is being processed before the federal courts of Quilmes.

'Pata' Medina extended last month a complaint against former president Mauricio Macri and the former governor of the province of Buenos Aires, María Eugenia Vidal, for alleged influence peddling and abuse of authority.

"The presentation was made before Federal Court 6 of Comodoro Py, and in it it is detailed that both Macri and Vidal, together with their ministers, have exerted pressure on judges and officials of the Judicial Power to prosecute and imprison the union leader, of way of disciplining the unions, "said César Albarracín, Medina's lawyer.

He recalled that, after that meeting, "four preventive prisons were issued against Medina, three of which, as expressed in the presentation made in court, ceased shortly after due to their manifest illegality."

Medina, who remains under house arrest in his house in the Buenos Aires party of Ensenada, had already denounced Macri and Vidal at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) as responsible for an alleged "political persecution against him."

Medina has been detained since September 2017 and on February 19, the Federal Chamber of La Plata granted him house arrest due to his age and state of health, while he ordered a custody of the National Gendarmerie and the placement of an electronic ankle brace.

In addition, the prohibition of Medina from participating in any union activity and communicating through third parties with members of the Uocra was ordered.