The Bicameral Intelligence Commission of Congress presented on Thursday before the Council of the Judiciary a request for impeachment against magistrates Mariano Llorens and Pablo Bertuzzi, whom they accuse of “bad performance in their duties”, for disassociating from an espionage case to those responsible for the AFI in the Government of Cambiemos, and endorse the theory of “self-employment” in which the agents of that organization would have incurred.
The legislators of the Frente de Todos of that commission -headed by Leopoldo Moreau (FDT)- met on Thursday afternoon with the president of the Judicial Council, Diego Molea, to whom they presented a 25-page brief with the arguments for promote a trial against the two members of the Buenos Aires Federal Chamber.
Molea, along with other members of the organization, such as Graciela Camaño, received Moreau and deputies Rodolfo Tailhade, Eduardo Valdes, and Blanca Osuna.
The Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires, with the votes of Llorens and Bertuzzi, released the then head of the AFI, Gustavo Arribas and Silvia Majdalani, maintaining that the agents of the “SuperMarioBross” group acted on their own.
Moreau stressed that it is the “first time that a parliamentary commission appears to request the start of a political trial against two chamberlains for poor performance of their duties” for the “arbitrary” sentence that they carried out to exonerate Arribas and Majdalani.
He added that the former officials cannot be separated from the cause, the former heads of the AFI, because they were “responsible for a systematic plan of illegal espionage of persecution that not only affected those who were victims, such as hundreds of people and organizations, but also affected to democracy as a whole.
He pointed out that if “this sentence is peacefully accepted in the jurisprudence of Argentina, that leaves open the possibility for any government to repeat and aggravate this type of behavior under cover of the theory that they were organized by self-employed or perejiles, as stated in the common jargon”.
Moreau reported that Molea told them that “immediately they were going to set in motion the mechanisms that the Council has planned and that they were going to go to a commission that must process the complaint; and we are waiting for a decision.”
The legislator affirmed that this ruling “was not a sentence, but a judicial procedure whose sole objective was to guarantee the impunity of Macri (Mauricio) and those responsible for the AFI”, to guarantee that “they do not answer for their abuses”.
He pointed out that “there is evidence that is more than evident against Llorens and Bertuzzi, who should have excused themselves because Llorens had a cousin brother in the case who was as a plaintiff and both were on the agenda of another defendant, such as Macri’s former secretary, Dario Nieto.
The legislators pointed out that “the very content of the judgment appealed here, by itself corroborates the fears of partiality well-foundedly invoked by the complaints regarding judges Llorens and Bertuzzi. For this, it is enough to refer to the writings presented by none other than the Public Association of Lawyers of the Federal Capital, pointing out, once again, the way in which the guarantee of the natural judge was sullied in the case”.
“In light of this background and the overwhelming evidence gathered in the investigation carried out by the Lomas de Zamora federal court, the decision of the Federal Chamber that revoked the prosecution of the former general director of the AFI Gustavo Arribas and of other senior agency officials,” they added.
They pointed out that “the reading of the resolution of judges Llorens and Bertuzzi leads to the conviction that we are facing an arbitrary resolution, dictated for reasons unrelated to legal ones.”
“The content of their resolution is irritating, as numerous victims have already questioned it in the process, and it is framed in the poor performance that they have evidenced throughout the process, as it was outlined, taking an interest in maintaining an intervention that legality prevented them from doing, eluding the claims of the victims and trying to guarantee the impunity of those to whom it is linked,” they added.
In the presentation, the Bicameral highlighted that “the poor performance denounced has been evidenced and must be considered by that Council of the Judiciary of the Nation’s Judicial Power”
It added that “the victims of the investigated criminal organization have described in their presentations ‘the objective circumstances that demonstrate the institutional seriousness of the case’.”
“For all these reasons, it is essential that once and for all the justice administration service take charge of giving an answer regarding facts that far exceed the interest of the parties constituted in the case”, since “it is at stake the normal functioning of democratic institutions as a whole”.
He also pointed out that the Supreme Court was informed but “not only did they fail to give a jurisdictional response with the speed that the case required, but even now they have withdrawn from it, without offering any plausible explanation to that effect.”
“Therefore, it is time for the members of the Nation’s Judiciary, the vast majority of whom are not contaminated, to return the corresponding procedure to this investigation,” said the parliamentary body.
And he asserted that this should be done “not only for the interest of the parties constituted in the present process or for the convenience of some political sector, but rather so that in Argentina the validity of the Rule of Law, whose recovery, so much sacrifice will cost us”.
Today, the members of the Bicameral Commission for the Follow-up and Control of Intelligence Organisms present to the Council of the Judiciary the request for impeachment of Housekeepers Bertuzzi and Llorens for poor performance. pic.twitter.com/zccpC2jjsH
– Leopoldo Moreau (@MoreauLeopoldo) February 10, 2022
