The defense of businessman Fabián De Sousa argued that during Mauricio Macri’s government there was “interference by the Executive Power” in court cases such as Oil Combustibles, through “the existence of a true illicit association” which, among other facts, “constructed false evidence” .
The lawyer Carlos Beraldi thus concluded last Thursday his final argument in the trial that follows De Sousa as an alleged necessary participant in the crime of “fraudulent administration” for not paying the Liquid Fuel tax corresponding to the oil company “Oil Combustibles”.
The defender demanded acquittal from the Federal Oral Court (TOF) 3, by ending an argument that lasted for three hearings in the final stage of the trial, in which the prosecution had already formulated its accusation with requests for convictions, while the AFIP withdrew from its role as plaintiff.
The debate will continue next Thursday with the last planned argument, that of the defense of the other accused businessman, Cristóbal López.
Meanwhile, the lawyers of the third court, the former head of the AFIP Ricardo Echegaray, claimed in their opportunity to allege the acquittal of the accused.
“From the Executive Power, in a systematic way, there were public demonstrations aimed at influencing the processing of the case”Carlos Beraldi
“I cannot close the plea without returning to issues that are transcendent”, remarked Beraldi and alluded to the “existence of a true illicit association” as “the way in which the process was interfered with from the beginning.”
The lawyer reiterated that there was “interference from the Executive Power” and “directly” from then-President Macri, who spoke about the cause on several occasions.
“From the Executive Power, in a systematic way, there were public demonstrations aimed at influencing the processing of the case,” Beraldi said before judges Fernando Machado Pelloni, Javier Ríos and Andrés Basso.
Beraldi He cited statements by Macri on the judicial situation of López and De Sousa, who were detained for 22 months in this case, in relation to the fact that “Oil Combustibles had to be seized, everything had to be put in a well and that this had to be distributed”
“This he said the first day, when the cause had just started and he said it again many times until he said a phrase that is already historical because of how shameful this demonstration meant”
The lawyer recalled that Macri said in an interview “this is not what we had agreed to”, after the release of the businessmen, after a change in the cover of the case.
“The Executive Power through its highest authority said this in an interview,” the lawyer warned.
In his argument in the oral and public process that is carried out through the virtual platform Zoom, the defender of the owner of the Indalo group considered that the accusation is “absolutely absurd”
“It is absolutely proven how the AFIP constructed false evidence of the charge,” he also added, noting that the judges who failed “against the claims of the Executive ended up being displaced from their position in an illegitimate way” as the former Buenos Aires federal chamberlain Eduardo Freiler exemplified among other cases of “pressure” on magistrates.
“But there were friendly judges, one of the judges who restored the legal qualification was a regular visitor of the former president (Macri) and those meetings were hidden within the framework of this same process. This is a scandal that has no precedent,” he evaluated in relation to the Chambermaid of Cassation Gustavo Hornos.
“It is absolutely proven how the AFIP built false evidence of the charge”Carlos Beraldi
De Sousa and López “were victims of illegal maneuvers and illegal wiretapping when they were detained, they listened to our legal advice,” he recalled.
“(Everything reviewed) has a direct impact on this process. Constitutional guarantees have been violated. The consequences of these illegal acts have a direct impact on the exercise of constitutional guarantees,” he concluded.
The case investigated alleged irregularities in the granting of payment plans by the AFIP to Oil Combustibles, for the tax on liquid fuels that it withheld from its clients.
The trial prosecutor Juan García Elorrio claimed to sentence Echegaray to 4 years and 8 months in prison and to 4 years and 4 months to the businessmen De Sousa and López for the crimes of “fraudulent administration aggravated to the detriment of the public administration.”
After López’s defense argument, which will begin this Thursday, it will be time for the so-called replies and rejoinder to the final arguments, and then a date will be set for the last words and verdict.
