The last session of the commission that is carrying out the impeachment trial against the members of the Supreme Court had
tense exchanges between K deputies and one of Judge Carlos Rosenkrantz's legal secretaries, Federico Morgenstern.
It was within the framework of the testimonies of witnesses summoned by the ruling party, centered on the controversial
2x1 case known as the "Muiña ruling",
in which the highest court in May 2017 applied the regime of two days in prison computed for each day of effective prison for a perpetrator of crimes against humanity.
The questions pointed to
a hypothesis that the Frente de Todos intends to demonstrate,
according to which the ruling arose from an agreement between the management of Mauricio Macri and some judges of the Court to retain the military vote.
The version with which Kirchnerism insisted in Tuesday's session is that there was an agreement in 2017 between the Executive Branch and the highest court
to benefit repressors.
This hypothesis indicates that on February 14 of that year, the protection of former judge Elena Highton de Nolasco for the non-appeal of the Government was finalized, and a month later the ruling in the Schiffrin case came out, which confirmed the 75-year limit to be court judge.
This last case was in the vocalía of Carlos Rosenkrantz and if she left a month before, Highton could not continue.
According to the accusers of the impeachment trial,
with Highton the majority was made for the Muiña ruling of the 2x1
, which for the ruling party rolled back a traditional doctrine of the Court regarding punishment in human rights trials.
Some politicians summoned for Tuesday
did not appear
before the commission, such as the former Minister of Justice, Germán Garavano;
the former Macrista judicial operator "Pepín" Rodríguez Simón and the current senator José Torello.
Yes,
two victims of the repressor Luis Muiña
(convicted for the disappearance of workers at the Posadas Hospital during the last dictatorship) did, and
two legal secretaries of Judge Rosenkrantz
.
One of them, José Sebastián Elías, explained in a brief presentation that he deals with constitutional issues, that he had a minor participation in the 2x1 process and that he did not observe
anomalies in the decision of the Schiffrin case.
In the longest and most conflicting testimony, the other Rosenkrantz secretary who testified, Federico Morgenstern, specified that he is in charge of
analyzing and prosecuting criminal cases together with the judge.
In addition, he explained that after studying the case during the summer of 2017 and preparing a draft together with his boss, he held meetings with other criminal lawyers from the Court's offices, with Judge Highton and another with Judge Horacio Rosatti to discuss the judgment of the Muiña case.
When asked about what they discussed, the witness refused to answer and argued that by article 8 b) of the regulations,
for the National Justice it has "the duty to keep confidentiality and confidentiality
regarding the opinions that were given during the course of the deliberation".
"I cannot reveal the content, but
they were exclusively legal conversations
," Morgenstern clarified.
"I exempt him from that duty,"
said the president of the commission, the pro-government deputy Carolina Gaillard.
Morgenstern replied: "You cannot excuse me because
I have an obligation to my superiors at Court."
In a defiant tone, Rosenkrantz's secretary also explained that the commission had two options:
ask the Court to relieve him of his duty to reserve and order him to make that statement, or detain him by public force.
"Don't make one too many. Don't play the canchero. Get off the horse”,
demanded the official Marcelo Casaretto.
"You have the obligation to respect the witnesses,"
replied the Morgenstern, amid shouts.
Morgenstern, also author of the book "Fraudulent res judicata. An essay on irritating res judicata,"
denied any government interference to release repressors.
"It seems crazy to me, because
it was from the government where we received the most attacks
," he highlighted in an extensive interrogation.
Morgenstern remarked: "I have no idea of anything extra legal. My experience in the Court working on the Muiña case
absolutely denies that spurious thing that they are insinuating.
If they are not discussing the ruling, I do not know why they summoned me.
I have nothing to say extra legal".
Rosenkrantz's legal secretary stressed that the Law is rules, principles and technicalities, not moral reasoning and discretion, and maintained that "there is no judicial program different from current law for those convicted of crimes against humanity."
Faced with another tense clash, in this case
with the ultra-Christian Leopoldo Moreau
,
he denied that the Pact of San José in Costa Rica had been breached
, because the Muiña ruling was not about a commutation of sentence, a pardon or an amnesty.
Morgenstern explained that the 2x1 does not commute but computes: the sentence is not replaced but it is considered that part of the sentence imposed was served for the excessive time that he was locked up in preventive detention while he had innocent status.
For the next session, the Kirchnerist deputy Rodolfo Tailhade
asked to summon Jorge Lanata, Martín Granovsky, Irina Hauser and Luciana Bertoia,
who in 2017 wrote on the subject, among other journalists.
look too
Impeachment Commission to the Court: To generate impact, the Ks quote a famous journalist
Trial of the Supreme Court: Kirchnerism failed in its attempt to expose four former Macrista officials in Deputies