MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

De la Rua confirms testimony that journalists, judges were bribed.

Former Argentine President Fernando De la Rua confirmed his testimony to a federal judge Wednesday that journalists and judges had received bribes during the government of Carlos Menem, judicial officials said.

De la Rua's appearance before Judge Jorge Urso came after he missed an appointment in February and was warned he would be taken to the court "by public force" if he did not show up for the new hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

The former president, who governed between 1999 and 2002, after 10 years of Menem's rule, left his two-hour court meeting with the judge without speaking to journalists, sources said.

Proceedings began at the end of last year when De la Rua claimed the secret service paid journalists and judges bribes during Menem's tenure in office (1989-1999).

"There is an independent press and others who receive envelopes," he said in statements to journalists which stirred up political circles.

In his testimony before Judge Urso, the former president maintained that his statements were based on reports by the non-governmental organization Freedom Forum and articles by well-known local journalists, judicial spokesmen said.

Fernando de la Rua, who resigned in the midst of social unrest on Dec. 20, 2001, halfway through his presidential term, is implicated along with several others in a case that was opened over the alleged payment of bribes in the Senate to ensure the approval of a labor reform law in 2000.

The 2000 labor reform law, which unions consider contradictory to the rights of the workers, was annulled last month with the enactment of new legislation.