MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

President Fernández critical of prosecution's “double standards”

Magistrates came and went through the Olivos residence under Macri and the State Attorney was nowhere near showing the same zeal, President Fernández stressed

Argentine President Alberto Fernández Friday issued a reply to Acting Attorney General Eduardo Casal's note from the day before accusing the head of “undue interference” with the ongoing investigation against Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for alleged corruption.

President Fernández insisted that in no way did he seek to interfere with Prosecutor Diego Luciani's work when answering questions during a TV show when he said the former president was being the target of judiciary persecution. Fernández, however, did question Casal's “double standards” and insisted that “the Judiciary and its judges and officials are not and could not be exempt from criticism and opinions in a democratic society.”

“I must point out that such expressions [judiciary persecution] can in no way be interpreted in the sense of wanting to condition the actions of an official and this is clear since they were made when the Prosecutor of the case had already finished his argument in the process,” the President stressed.

Regarding the double standards, Fernández recalled that the Attorney General was not as surprised when “former President Mauricio Macri, also in the exercise of his presidential functions, directly instructed his Minister of Justice to initiate impeachment proceedings against Judge Alejo Ramos Padilla.”

“It can be observed that, in this case, it was not simply the opinion of the former president, but an express request for the dismissal of a judge who was just starting an important investigation on serious illegal espionage actions,” Fernández went on, and insisted that Casal's “zeal... would have been important, for the democratic health of our country, to promote transparent investigations into the real motivations behind some visits made by prominent members of the Judiciary to former President Mauricio Macri at the Quinta de Olivos and also at the Casa Rosada; on the role played by the fugitive ”Pepín“ Rodriguez Simón and other former officials in the so-called 'Judicial Table' and on guaranteeing the impartiality of those who intervene as magistrates and officials in criminal proceedings, especially in the federal justice system, when political leaders are under investigation.”

“This double yardstick to measure institutional facts and this systematic asymmetry in the positions adopted by some important magistrates and officials of the federal justice system ... make it even more necessary to open these debates to protect the health of democracy and so that the electoral processes and the democratic life of society are not affected again by the actions of the justice system with political and/or factual interests.”

Fernández had likened Luciani to fellow Prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead with a gunshot to his head in 2015, hours before filing a complaint in Congress against the then president.