Olivos gate: what the change of court and the alert in the Government could imply

09/02/2021 12:11

• Clarín.com

• Politics

Updated 09/02/2021 12:23

The cause of the visits and income to Olivos continues to heat up despite the Government's attempts to cancel the issue.

With the decision of Judge Sebastián Casanello to declare himself incompetent and send the file to the federal courts of San Isidro, several paths are now open.

Some generate discomfort in the ruling party that seeks to remove from the agenda - until now without success - the advances of the file that also includes the birthday celebration at the Quinta de Olivos of the first lady Fabiola Yáñez when it was prohibited.

In the resolution he signed on Wednesday, Casanello ordered that the case go to San Isidro

to the court that "in turn corresponds

.

"

That court, according to judicial sources, is federal N2 in charge of Lino Mirabelli.

But it is not yet defined that the file is kept by him since the case could end in federal court N1 controlled by Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, the former wife of the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman.

Arroyo Salgado already has a complaint in his office for the same events and a week ago he had asked Casanello to send him the file from Comodoro Py to see what was in that case and determine if it was his responsibility to investigate it.

A key indication of the magistrate's interest in a case that the President and Kirchnerism are watching closely.

Federal judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado who could take over the cause of the visits to Olivos.

For the Government, it is a concern that Arroyo Salgado keeps the file.

In the ruling party, they consider that the judge would not be entirely "impartial" and recall that she

was a plaintiff in the case investigating the death of the prosecutor in the AMIA case.

The truth is that Arroyo Salgado became involved in that case on behalf of her daughters who had lost their father and she herself her ex-husband.

Contrary to what the ruling party thinks about Arroyo Salgado - they also remember the criticisms he made about the judicial management of Cristina Kirchner - in sectors of the Frente de Todos they see with good eyes that the case remains in the hands of Mirabelli.

The judge was already involved in files on quarantine violations during 2020. One of the most resounding passed through his office, the one involving Federico Lamas, the surfer who was returning from Brazil with a board on the roof of his truck and was arrested at a Gendarmerie checkpoint on the Pan-American Highway when he tried to enter the City.

It was on March 24, 2020, four days after Alberto Fernández decreed the toughest restrictions.

Mirabelli prosecuted the surfer and seized him for $ 500,000

for violating article 205 of the Penal Code, which stipulates that "he will be punished with imprisonment from six months to two years, whoever violates the measures adopted by the competent authorities to prevent the introduction or spread of an epidemic ".

The surfer Federico Lamas when he was arrested for breaking the quarantine.

Photo Germán García Adrasti.

The President, the first lady Fabiola Yáñez and the rest of the birthday guests in Olivos are accused of the same crime as the surfer, having violated article 205 of the Penal Code.

With one caveat: in the case of Fernández, it was the president himself who issued the measure.

At the time, the President had called the surfer an "idiot" for violating the restrictions that he himself finally broke. 

According to Fernández, he did not commit any crime because he is essential personnel and because, he argued, his festive behavior did not generate infections or spread of the coronavirus.

This issue has not yet been resolved by the Justice and it is what the magistrate who will finally take the case in the San Isidro courts must define. 

Look also

Fiesta in Olivos: Judge Casanello declared himself incompetent and sends the case to San Isidro

Florencio Randazzo tried to “cheeky” Alberto Fernández and explained why “the crime is double” in Olivos