Videos of the controversial birthday of the first Argentine lady 1:16
(CNN Spanish) -
The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, proposed an economic repair and the dismissal of the investigation that follows the celebration in July 2020 of the birthday of the first lady, Fabiola Yánez, an event that was held to Despite the movement and assembly restrictions that were then in force due to the covid-19 pandemic.
In a letter before the court that is handling the case, and to which CNN agreed, Fernández also proposed to donate half of his salary for four months to the Malbrán Institute as a resolution of the case.
The Malbrán is a decentralized public body that depends on the Ministry of Health of the Nation and coordinates laboratory policies at the national level.
It is the institution in charge of the official processing of test results to detect covid-19.
Fernández was formally accused in the file this Thursday shortly after the presentation of his brief.
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The federal prosecutor Ramiro González formalized that the president is being investigated in the case so that he is notified that he must appoint a defense attorney, according to the prosecutor's opinion.
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González also ordered formal notification of the accusation to the first lady and nine other people who participated in the celebration of Yánez's birthday at the presidential residence in Olivos, although all have already presented a defense attorney in the file, as reported by CNN previously.
Unlike the other attendees, the president appeared without appointing a lawyer and in his own right (he is a lawyer), according to the letter.
In his presentation to justice, Alberto Fernández argued that there would be no crime by breaching the restrictions that he himself had decreed because the celebration did not trigger infections or the spread of covid-19.
"Disobedience becomes an empty question when the lack of danger to the legal good is proven," said the Argentine president in the letter.
Fernández is also a professor of Criminal Law at the University of Buenos Aires.
Alberto Fernández: I'm sorry for Fabiola Yañez's party 1:34
The celebration of the birthday of the first lady
On July 14, 2020, at one of the most critical moments of the health crisis caused by covid-19 in Argentina, Fernández and Yáñez celebrated the birthday of the first lady together with their guests, with which they allegedly breached the imposed restrictions by the government itself to social gatherings.
The fact came to light in recent weeks by the leak of a photograph and videos of the meeting.
Failure to comply with these regulations carries penalties of between six months and two years in prison, since it is considered that they violate the measures adopted by the authorities to prevent the introduction or spread of an epidemic, according to article 205 of the Penal Code.
On July 14, 2020, President Fernández celebrated the birthday of his wife, Fabiola Yáñez, along with other guests in full strict quarantine.
At the end of June 2020, Argentina had entered the phase of preventive and mandatory social distancing, but Alberto Fernández had ordered that the driving and gathering bans be maintained in the capital and Greater Buenos Aires - where the Quinta de Olivos is located -, the areas most affected by infections and hospitalizations.
For this reason, the prosecutor seeks to establish whether the president, the first lady and the rest of those who appear in the photo failed to comply with the obligations imposed by the presidential decree 260 of 2020, which prohibited social gatherings and the circulation of non-essential personnel.
Alberto Fernandez