Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s lawyer, Carlos Beraldi, assured that he will show in his final argument that the accusations against the Vice President in the Vialidad case “are not true” and challenged another member of the Federal Oral Court 2, Jorge Gorini.
In addition, he argued that the credibility of the trial for alleged crimes with public works in Santa Cruz between 2003 and 2015 was “mortally wounded” after the denunciation of friendship ties between prosecutor Diego Luciani and TOF2 judge Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu, of a soccer game played by both in the Los Abrojos villa of former president Mauricio Macri and the existence of meetings with officials of that government.
In his turn, the trial prosecutor Diego Luciani refused to withdraw from the case and demanded the rejection of all the challenges against him.
“All of this has mortally wounded the credibility of this trial,” Beraldi concluded when asking for the floor mid-morning, to close a round of presentations by defense attorneys who expanded their arguments to remove Luciani, his colleague Sergio Mola, from the trial, to Giménez Uriburu while the defense of the Vice President added Judge Gorini.
Beraldi anticipated that, in case the challenges are rejected, he will resort to national higher courts “which have shown so much commitment to this deteriorated system” and also to “international bodies.”
“I hope that he reconsiders and ultimately Argentines can live in peace with an independent Justice like the one we dreamed of when democracy was recovered in 1983,” he said.
Beraldi asked to speak at the beginning of a new hearing of the oral trial in the so-called Vialidad case, after 8:30 this Friday and assured that, with the requests for removal from the prosecutor Diego Luciani, from Judge Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu and now from Gorini seeks to “guarantee that the trial takes place in accordance with the rules of due legal process” and assured: “There is no other purpose.”
The lawyer framed what happened in a “background such as the permanent and systematic interference that was made from the government of Mauricio Macri in Justice.”
“It is absolutely false to say that with a challenge one does not want to answer the charges. We are already going to demonstrate in the allegation that the accusations that are being made in this case with so much emphasis are not true,” he said.
The Vice President’s lawyer now challenged Gorini as a result of a publication in the newspaper Página/12 in which the judge’s meetings with the then Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, during the macrismo, which Gimenez Uriburu also attended, were reported.
That publication alludes to two meetings at the Ministry of Security, the last of which -in 2018- took place when the Federal Oral Court 2 had already opened the evidence presentation stage in this trial.
Beraldi extended the challenge to Giménez Uriburu and Gorini for these meetings at the Ministry of Security and Gorini responded immediately at the hearing, stating that one of those meetings had to do with the dissemination of photos “in pajamas” of former Vice President Amado Boudou on day of his arrest.
Gorini explained that he was in charge of the case for the Once train tragedy, in which the arrests of former officials with final convictions would be ordered, and he requested the meeting to guarantee that situations like this were avoided.
“This does not appear in the publication,” Gorini assured, adding that the other meeting was about a matter of his personal security, asking Beraldi to consider whether he would materialize the challenge that he presented orally at the hearing.
The lawyer confirmed his intention to submit the challenge in writing.
In relation to the situation of Luciani and Giménez Uriburu, the lawyer recalled that the photos show them in the Los Abrojos villa, of former president Mauricio Macri
“It wasn’t just any place,” he mentioned, recalling that in a book about Macri’s life, it was alluded to that “not everyone went there, the officials who played soccer were invited,” which “indicates a level of proximity that Not everyone enjoys.”
“We are facing a very complex situation, beyond the sporting spirit that any person may have, the truth is that these events take place in a very particular context,” he added.
What happened had as a “background” the “permanent and systematic interference that was made by the government of Mauricio Macri in Justice. This redoubled the obligation not to have contact with any official or with Patricia Bullrich, whatever the reason might have been.” .
“In the almost 40 years of democracy that we have, such serious events have never occurred,” he said.
Beraldi recalled that the then President of the Nation “tried to appoint by decree two Ministers of the Court, an issue that has nothing to do with the history of Argentine democracy, the Attorney General of the Nation was forced to resign. owner of the farm did this publicly,” he emphasized.
“The judge and the prosecutor must adjust, out of any objective fear, to the duties that are imposed on them, in the case of the judges, impartiality and the prosecutor, objectivity,” explained the former President’s lawyer.
Beraldi remarked that “it is not that with a challenge we seek not to discuss a substantive issue. On the contrary, we want to discuss the substantive issue. It is absolutely false to say that with a challenge one does not want to contest the charges.”
“I must reach you with that recusal, Dr. Gorini,” he said before the magistrate who presided over the hearing that takes place virtually through the Zoom platform in relation to his meetings with Bullrich, one of them on August 23, 2018 , when the Court was already preparing the trial.
The hearing continued with presentations by other defense attorneys, including former Minister of Planning Julio De Vido and businessman Lázaro Báez, who ratified their proposals to remove the prosecutors and Giménez Uriburu from the case.
In his turn, prosecutor Luciani rejected the challenge against him and assured that an eventual friendship with a judge is not a cause for separating him.
Luciani requested the rejection “in limine” of all the proposals because “the assumptions contemplated in the law” do not exist to remove the representative from the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“Ill-intentioned speculations have been made to question my objectivity,” added Luciani, reviewing his judicial career that began at the age of 18 and remarking that he had never before been challenged.
With Judge Giménez Uriburu “I clarify that I am not linked by any relationship of intimate friendship, but of appreciation and respect, which has never affected or will affect objectivity in the case,” he said, adding that coinciding in a sporting or scientific activity “it is not cause for recusal”
“Every year sports activities are organized in the Associations and Colleges and it does not occur to anyone to challenge a magistrate for a shared sports activity” such as soccer tournaments, rugby or “going to the Boca field,” according to what he said
“The reason for the challenge is so illogical that it is really hard for me to answer it,” he added, noting that with this criterion “they could not share a chair, a choir, a course, a conference, a religious ceremony.”
Judge Giménez Uriburu did not attend the hearing, since being challenged cannot participate in a future decision on the removal of prosecutors.
Judge Giménez Uriburu will respond in writing to the claims of alleged loss of “impartiality” based on his links with the prosecutor and for the new reason raised by Beraldi, his visits to the Ministry of Security in Bullrich’s management.
Beraldi was the first lawyer who claimed to separate Luciani and Giménez Uriburu for having joined the same soccer team that played games in the Los Abrojos fifth, of former president Mauricio Macri.
The defenses of other defendants later adhered to his proposal and in the case of the lawyers of former Minister of Planning Julio De Vido they extended the challenge to the other prosecutor involved in the trial, Sergio Mola.
After the discharges, the removal requests will be resolved by the other two TOF2 judges, Jorge Gorini and Andrés Basso, and their decision will be appealed before the IV Chamber of the Federal Cassation Chamber.
The prosecution makes the final argument in the trial that follows the Vice President, former national officials, Road Administration of the province of Santa Cruz and Báez for the alleged direction of public works in that province in favor of companies of the latter between 2003 and 2015.
The Court ruled that the claims for withdrawal from the prosecutors and the judge be processed in parallel with the development of the debate hearings.
The trial is in the stage of final arguments and the prosecution has been presenting its accusation for ten days.
