Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Oct. 25, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@Sepa_mass
Buenos Aires, October 26 (RHC)-- Argentinean Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has been acquitted in part of the case due to a lack of evidence of bribe payments. This is linked to the 'Cuadernos' case, still under investigation, on the alleged illegal payment of two businessmen linked to public works.
The ruling of the federal judge in charge of the case, Julián Ercolini, said that "throughout the present investigation, it has not been possible to incorporate elements that allow establishing the existence of such payments and/or the person/s who would have made them."
It concerns alleged payments by businessmen linked to public works, Franciso Valenti (manager of Pescarmona Metallurgical Industries) and Enrique Pescarmona (company's businessman). Their guilt has not been proven.
In this sense, Ercolini said, "an impartial attitude must be adopted concerning the persons charged since the intervening prosecutor has not requested that they be brought to trial nor has he proposed any measures."
Federal Judge Julián Ercolini dismissed Vice President Cristina Fernández in a part of the so-called 'Cuadernos' case, which investigates the alleged circuit of bribes between businessmen and former officials that a driver recorded in a notebook. Ercolini also dismissed former Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido for one of the alleged acts of bribery that he considered not proven.
The primary evidence about the 'Cuadernos' case, which started in 2018, emerged from the notebooks of Oscar Centeno, a former driver of a public official. Centeno had written, in his handwriting, the dates of delivery, the amounts, and the officials and businessmen involved.