The federal judge of La Plata Ernesto Kreplak refused to decline his jurisdiction and claims of annulment presented by the defense of the accused in the case in which the operation of a “judicial table” during the government of María Eugenia Vidal in the province of Buenos Aires to put together judicial files against union leaders.
In a resolution to which Télam had access, the magistrate decided to reject the plea of jurisdiction requested by the defense of the former officials of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) Adrián Patricio Grassi, Juan Sebastián De Stéfano, Guillermo Federico Moretto, in order to take the file to the federal courts of Comodoro Py.
Similar proposals that objected to the magistrate’s competence had been presented by the mayor of La Plata, Julio César Garro, and the provincial senator of Together for Change, Juan Pablo Allan.
Kreplac maintains when confirming the validity of his action in the case that, although “among the officials who participated in the alleged acts there are some who worked as national public officials based in the City of Buenos Aires, it is not the headquarters of their offices what defines the competence, but rather the place of commission of the investigated facts”.
“In any case, the participation of national government officials in the exercise of these functions is what justifies the intervention of the federal jurisdiction, but not the referral to the courts of the Capital,” the judge remarked in his resolution.
As for nullities, The magistrate assures that “it must be pointed out against the nullifying claim, that said rule of exclusion of evidence is far from being undisputed and applicable to all cases that have an illegality as a precedent.”
In this way, the judge was now in a position to resolve the procedural situation of the 14 people who are charged in this case and who have already been investigated.
This case began last December, when a video was found in the AFI facilities that recorded a meeting that took place in June 2017 at the Buenos Aires headquarters of Banco Provincia and in which officials from the Vidal government, AFI agents participatedentrepreneurs from the construction of the City of La Plata and the mayor of that city, Julio César Garro.
In that meeting, the way to promote the assembly of legal actions against the head of the Platense Uocra Juan Pablo “Pata” Medina and define a course of action against other union leaders was analyzed.
The then Minister of Labor of Buenos Aires, Marcelo Villegas, participated in that meeting, who in the registry informs those present of his intention to have “a Gestapo” -the political police of the Nazi regime- to act against the unions.
The case was initiated by a complaint filed by the current controller of the AFI, Cristina Caamaño, before the Federal Justice of La Platasomething that some defendants questioned, who claim that the investigation goes to the Federal Courts of Comodoro Py, which have jurisdiction over the City of Buenos Aires, where the meeting was held.
