Minutes after the Council of the Magistracy voted the suspension of the federal and electoral judge of Mendoza Walter Bento, the president of the organism Horacio Rosatti sent a letter to the Justice of that province to inform them that the magistrate accused of corruption had initiated a political trial and that he was suspended.
The letter that Rosatti sent to the president of the Chamber of Appeals of Mendoza, Manuel Pizarro, and the president of the National Electoral Chamber Alberto Dalla Vía is the way to make the decision of the Council of the Magistracy effective in Justice.
Thus, Bento will no longer be able to continue making decisions as a federal and electoral judge and will be ready to face impeachment.
The Magistracy decided that the Trial Jury is made up of counselors Miguel Piedecasas, Roxana Reyes and Eduardo Vichis.
The letter that Horacio Rosatti sent to the Justice of Mendoza.
In the letter he sent to Pizarro, Rosatti informs him of the Council's decision and asks him to "notify Dr. Walter Ricardo Bento of his suspension and, once the diligence has been carried out, send the record" to the Council of the Magistracy.
The text that reached the Electoral Chamber also notifies Dalla Vía that the Magistracy "opened the procedure for the removal of the judge" and adds that the accusation was made and ordered "to suspend him in the exercise of his functions."
Bento was a powerful judge who arrived at the federal court 1 of Mendoza in 2005 and was proposed by Néstor Kirchner, who at that time sent his shortlist to the Senate for approval. He had good relations not only with Peronism but also with Mendoza radicalism.
Despite being prosecuted, Bento was still in office since he has no conviction and because the Magistracy had not suspended him until this Wednesday.
The letter that Horacio Rosatti sent to the National Electoral Chamber.
His assets were inhibited in the framework of the judicial investigation and he has an embargo for 327 million pesos that also falls on his wife Marta Boiza, also employed in the Justice.
The crimes of which he is accused are very serious. For the Justice Bento collected bribes to prisoners convicted of drug trafficking and smuggling so that they have judicial benefits. With these alleged funds that he collected illegally, he would have enriched himself.
In fact, part of the case investigates how he made his fortune that for Justice is impossible to explain.
They also prosecuted him for being the head of the illicit association that was dedicated to collecting the alleged bribes.
His history shows regular trips to Miami and Las Vegas with stays of more than a month, three Audi cars, an Amarok truck, 12 properties and millionaire investments in trusts. Also properties in closed neighborhoods and millionaire expenses with credit cards.
One of the vehicles was acquired under the disability regime: it does not pay patents and was purchased at a lower price.
