MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Menem indicted in Río Tercero explosion case

Former Pte. Carlos Menem

Federal Judge Oscar Valentinuzzi yesterday indicted former president Carlos Menem in connection with the 1995 explosion of the Río Tercero's munitions plant in Córdoba province that killed seven people, and ruled that there is a lack of enough evidence regarding then army chief-of-staff and current ambassador to Colombia Martín Balza.

Court sources reported that Menem's indictment was on charges of intentional damage aggravated by the death of one person and that the decision does not mean he will be arrested. He has said that the explosion was caused by "an accident." Besides Menem, several military officers have been indicted in the case: Carlos Cornejo Torino, Marcelo Gatto, Edberto González de la Vega, Carlos Franke and Nicolás Quiroga. Courts hope to open an oral trial against all the accused as soon as possible, the court sources said. A court had already ruled that there was lack of enough evidence to indict Balza in a related case concerning the illegal sale of weapons to Croatia and Ecuador for which Menem spent five months under arrest in 2001 before he was acquitted. Balza continues to be investigated in the Río Tercero case. Separately, Balza, who was in the Falkland/Malvinas War, was summoned to declare as a witness in a trial against eight people accused of having committed crimes against humanity during the past military dictatorship. The trial is scheduled to start on Wednesday in the province of Neuquén and Balza is slated to testify on October 28. From 1987 to 1988 he ran the army's 6th mountain brigade which, in turn, oversaw military unit 167 where the La Escuelita illegal detention camp functioned. Buenos Aires Herald