The former president of Argentina Alberto Fernández testified this Wednesday (11/27/2024) in a case in which he is being investigated for alleged corruption, in the form of fraudulent administration through the contracting of insurance during his mandate (2019-2023).
“We have raised the annulment of the call to give an investigative statement because we understand that there is no type of evidence that could support this suspicion,” Mariana Barbitta, Fernández’s lawyer, told the press at the end of the hearing.
The case involves alleged insurance contracts for different State offices through an intermediary – who charged commissions for the management – when they could be done directly. According to a decree signed by Fernández himself, the State insurance was covered by the state-owned Banco Nación insurer.
The insurance broker is the husband of Fernández’s personal secretary and the evidence on which the Prosecutor’s Office relies came from her mobile phone. Both the secretary and her husband are accused in the case that has a list of almost 40 people summoned to testify, including former officials of the state bank’s insurance company.
Barbitta stated that the decree signed by Fernández “did not have any article that mentioned any type of intermediation.” According to the lawyer, Fernández referred in his statement to his relationship with the insurance broker: “He clarified that during the presidential administration he had a maximum of four exchanges, always linked to personal issues, so there is also no doubt that he was not “he intervened for any management that facilitates or generates any type of benefit to him or to third parties.”
Fernández had already filed an appeal requesting the annulment of the summons, but it was rejected. Although he could answer the questions in writing, the former president – a lawyer by profession and law professor – chose to appear in court. The former president testified, but decided not to answer the judge’s questions.
The lawyer explained that “it was a tense statement at first,” since the former president “does not sit in front of an impartial judge.” Fernández had asked to remove Judge Julián Ercolini from the case and, although a court rejected the request, the defense reported that it will appeal the decision. The judge will have ten business days to decide if there is merit to prosecute Fernández, if he decides to dismiss the case or request more evidence from the Prosecutor’s Office.
During the examination of Fernández’s secretary’s phone for this reason, testimonies and images came to light that led to the complaint of gender violence filed against Fernández by his ex-partner Fabiola Yáñez, which is still being processed in Justice and by the that the former president is summoned to testify on December 11.
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