Lucia Salinas
07/19/2021 15:09
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 07/19/2021 3:09 PM
In less than 24 hours, Amado Boudou will be able to enjoy his parole,
after two reductions in the terms of his sentence for corruption, having also served one year and three months of house arrest. On Friday, prior to the start of the judicial fair, the prosecutor
Marcelo Colombo
said that the conditions are in place for the former vice vice president to start this new stage. In the midst of this circumstance,
Laura Muñoz
, a witness in the Ciccone case, denounced that the Government does not take care of her and exposed
irregularities in the witness protection program
that depends on the Ministry of Justice directed by
Martín Soria.
Last Thursday,
with the vote of judges Mariano Borinsky and Ángela Ledesma
- and the
dissent of Javier Carbajo
- Chamber IV of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation reduced the deadlines for compliance with the sentence that weighs on Boudou, who On August 7, 2018, he was convicted of
bribery and negotiations incompatible with the public function.
On December 3, the Supreme Court of Justice unanimously confirmed that sentence.
At that time, the former vice vice president was serving his arrest at his home, since the then criminal execution judge Daniel Obligado considered that it was more convenient than this one at home
because he had two small children
.
After the final confirmation of the Court, and after two requests from prosecutors
Marcelo Colombo and Guillermina García Padín
for Boudou to return to jail, Obligado had no option and revoked the house arrest.
But that measure was not immediately applicable, and two months later he signed another resolution:
his sentence was reduced by ten months.
Boudou was still at home.
To that account, the decision of last Friday must be added, one month less than the time of his sentence.
Thus it was that the calculations were favorable for the former Minister of Economy, with that reduction the date on which he would serve two-thirds of his sentence was advanced, which enabled him to
request parole.
This Tuesday your situation must be resolved.
"Liberty remains corrupt and the witnesses we risk speaking out remain prisoners of our testimony," said
Laura Muñoz,
ex-wife of Alejandro Vandenbroele - designated as Boudou's front man - who entered the witness protection program after testifying in the Ciccone case.
The program, which Leonardo Fariña and Víctor Manzanares were also able to integrate as defendants, depends on the Ministry of Justice.
With the change in management, all of them decided to renounce their protected status, stating that they did
not feel safe
.
As a witness - she is not charged - the former Vandenbroele decided to continue under the protection of the program that
has under its supervision 400 people
, including witnesses, accused collaborators and their respective families.
With the sponsorship of the lawyer Daniel Sabsay, two presentations were made to the Ministry of Justice, for various irregularities that Muñoz denounced.
"
Laura Muñoz
declared - risking her life and that of her three children - and provided decisive information to obtain the conviction of her former partner and the former Vice President of the Nation, Mr. Amado Boudou, within the framework of the cause known as" Ciccone case ", began the brief to which
Clarín
agreed
.
Sabsay recalled that
the file investigating the renegotiation of the debt of the province of Formosa
, known as "Ciccone II", is still open. The latter investigates the origin of the funds used to purchase the printing press, as well as the route that that money would have followed, "where
presumably there was money laundering
, which would make title XIII of the second book of the Penal Code of the nation":
In this regard, the lawyer pointed out that "in all the cases the defendants are the same and the investigations of the facts investigated have been initiated by the complaint of our principal-Muñoz- or as a result of it, then serving as his testimony as a basis for the processes criminal, which in turn will
allow the State to recover assets from corruption
in the event that the convictions become final. "
This course of causes "led to the inclusion of Mrs. Muñoz in the witness protection program, but at present the State - which has used her testimony, placing her at risk,
has completely abandoned her
, accumulating a debt of more than six months of rent in the house that this Ministry -under another political leadership- decided to rent to him ", maintains the proposal.
Muñoz explained to
Clarín
that part of that debt began to be regularized very recently "but they prevented me from working freely, they choose where I live, Boudou is free and I live as if I were imprisoned."
For this reason, they denounced
a "lack of protection by the State"
of Vandenbroele's ex-wife in her capacity as a witness.
Sabsay denounced that the obligation to assist in Laura Muñoz's labor reintegration was also breached, for which "she was placed in a situation of incomprehensible inequity because she was not granted any support or means to procure herself but at the same time she was He put her at the head of a lease contract that is impossible for her to face. "
In other words, the lawyer added, "
the State used Mrs. Muñoz
to be able to fulfill its own obligations (since otherwise it could not have fulfilled them as it did), it put her at risk and then abandoned her without further consideration. ".
How the Witness Protection Program Works
The process to enter the program is arduous, and has several stages to determine if the risk of danger is high, medium or low and, based on this, the security plan is developed.
With very strict rules, to which not everyone is able to adapt, the program assists
men and women who participated in criminal activities or who were witnesses of them,
and who, because they have given sensitive and relevant information, can influence an investigation.
To protect them, on many occasions those who enter the program are forced to accept a radical change in their lifestyles.
