After meeting Thursday morning with prosecutor Gabriela Fossati, the court prosecutor, Juan Gomezannounced that prosecutor Gabriela Fossati will be removed from the case involving the former head of presidential custody, Alexander Astesiano. The latter was condemned to four and a half years in prison for the continued crimes of conjunction of personal and public interest, criminal association, disclosure of secrets and influence peddling.
Gómez’s decision was made after several episodes in which the 12th Shift Flagrancia prosecutor was involved. One of them was the inquiry into the former director of Convivencia Ciudadana, Gustavo Loyalwhose relevance was questioned by his lawyer, Diego Camaño.
In addition, Fossati made complaints to journalists and the president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira. Likewise, the lawyer accused her colleague Fernando Romano of gender violence. All this in the midst of a sea of criticism and questioning of his way of handling the case. The investigation of Leal has been questioned – whose argumentative bases are not yet precisely known – and the way in which she has avoided targeting officials of the Lacalle Pou government who are mentioned in Astesiano’s chats.
“The resolutions that we adopt are in the name of the greatest transparency that we can give to the activity of the institution,” said Gómez, and cited “notorious situations that have occurred in recent times” when specifying his decision.
Why that resolution? It is public knowledge of the many proposals made by Dr. Fossati, expressing harassment, insecurity and various pressures”, Gómez added.
“Today we are giving the official response to the proposals made by Dr. Fossati, who also stated in an email dated March 17, 2023, two possible destination options in case of transfer: Economic and Complex Crimes or Homicides. My answer is that it is not possible to find either one or the other possibility, since there is no vacancy in those prosecutor’s offices,” said Gómez, who also described the conflict with Romano as “an unpleasant fact.”
“The transfer made constitutes a horizontal movement with a similar function and the same degree of hierarchy. Functional or acquired career rights of the transferred professional are not infringed. The transfer in question is not directly related to the complaint made by Dr. Camaño. It doesn’t have any kind of relationship. These types of complaints are common and we receive them practically every month regarding the actions of a prosecutor. Here it is not about acting under pressure from absolutely anyone. We comply with the legal and constitutional obligation that protects us with respect, but regardless of any issue related to partisanship or ideologies. We are not here for that,” continued the court prosecutor.
“What I try and want is for the work to be silent, that we are not permanently subject to this type of media situation that does not do the Attorney General’s Office or the prosecutors any good,” Gómez concluded.
