Before the Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires,
Cristina Kirchner's lawyers once again insisted on the removal of judge María Eugenia Capuchetti
from the case investigating the attempted murder of which the vice president was a victim in September of last year.
This time -they tried before- the lawyers sought to justify her request in
the magistrate's ties with the Buenos Aires Ministry of Security
, she already works as a
researcher at the Higher Institute of Public Security
(ISSP) of the City.
Last year, the members of Chamber I of the Chamber endorsed Judge Capuchetti as instructor of the file, which has
four people prosecuted and three of them arrested
for the attempted murder of the Vice President of the Nation on September 1, 2022. .
In that decision, Judge Leopoldo Bruglia - a member of Chamber I and with sole performance in this case - was clear in maintaining that
the recusal cannot be used just because one does not agree with the
legal decisions that are made within the framework of the inquiry.
This Thursday at noon, the lawyers
Marcos Aldazabal and José Manuel Ubeira
once again asked for the removal of Capuchetti in this case, understanding that
there are "political ties"
between the magistrate and the Ministry of City Security through the ISSP, a body self-sufficient that does not depend on the Buenos Aires government.
During the hearing this Thursday, Aldazabal maintained that "it is not a university that is autonomous and that its authorities are elected under that structure."
She continued to present her arguments by questioning the "role of an investigator that the judge claims when no work that she has developed is known in nine years."
Continuing with this argument, Cristina Kirchner's defense indicated that the "employment relationship with the City's Public Security Institute
is explicitly political and incompatible with the role of a judge
," since "among the objectives of the place It is detailed that it must provide political advice to the City government".
Then, it was raised before Bruglia that those who work in said Institute "are part of the design of public policies on security. It is an executive body in which a judge cannot participate. The authorities are chosen by the Minister of Security.
When Judge Capuchetti rejected this new recusal promoted by the vice lawyers, she indicated: "The recusing party invokes academic activities that generate alleged links with local officials, displaying a wide spectrum of issues without further development than their mere mention,
without delving into them.
the presumed interest that the undersigned would have and the reason why it should be set aside to understand these proceedings".
However, the lawyers maintain that said activity "ends up being
a way in which the City pays
the judge a salary, something that does not correspond and that is incompatible" which "allows doubts about her impartiality."
When explaining the situation, Judge Capuchetti indicated that the task carried out
is of an academic nature "of police training
and that this does not fit into any of the grounds for recusal provided by the Penal Code."
As detailed, the magistrate has been working at the Institute as a teacher since 2014, receiving a salary of 73,924 pesos.
And although the autarchic body has its own funds, the administration of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta allocates funds to it.
In part, this is discussed by the lawyers Aldazabal and Ubeira.
Among the aspects highlighted in the request for recusal, it was noted that "
participating in the ISSP is equivalent to participating in a dependency of the Executive Power
, and not in an academic dependency, beyond what is done in the organization."
They added that the ISSP Observatory does not include teaching activities (the only ones allowed to judges) and that, therefore, what they do in exchange for their salary is "incompatible with their position."
Finally, Cristina Kirchner's lawyers questioned that one of the lines of investigation in the case, focused on the role of the federal security forces in charge of guarding the vice on the night of the attack "does not in any way include the role of the police of the City, if it is investigated, everything related to security should be investigated," said lawyer Aldazabal.