MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The profile of the suspect accused of trying to kill Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

He was born in Sao Paulo to an Argentine mother who died in 2017

A suspect who has been identified as the 35-year-old Brazilian national Fernando André Sabag Montiel has been arrested after pointing a gun at Cristina Kirchner's head.

Federal Judge María Eugenia Capuchetti ordered he be housed at the Superintendence of Investigations of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA).

The assailant mingled in the crowd before pointing a gun at CFK's head. The firearm, an Argentine-built Bersa .380 caliber pistol, failed to go off for reasons yet to be determined. The model is based on the famous Walther PPK pistol used by Ian Fleming's British Secret Agent James Bond. The Bersa is famous for jamming very rarely. According to the latest reports, it was loaded, contrary to initial interpretations that no shots were fired because there were no bullets.

The moment in which the gun is triggered and CFK covered her face.

 

Sabag Montiel was first caught by CFK supporting some militants and then handed over to the authorities. In the early hours of Friday, Sabag Montiel's home was raided.

Read also: Argentina in state of shock after attack on CFK

The suspect had been interviewed by Crónica TV at random in the streets. He explained that his girlfriend had “stopped having social plans because she preferred to work.”

In his Instagram account, the suspect also said he supported “neither [Liberal Deputy Javier] Milei, nor Cristina.” He also opposed Sergio Massa's appointment as Superminister of Economy.

“I went on Crónica TV criticizing the government and Sergio Massa. on top of that, the journalists congratulated me saying that I know about politics, they told me that I have to be a reporter thanks to the bald guy, I treated them as a pancake, neither Milei nor Cristina,” he wrote.

On Instagram, he used to go by the name of “Fernando Salim” on that social network. However, his profiles were taken down during the early hours of Friday.

Among his interests and the pages he followed in the different networks, several radicalized or hate groups presented themselves as “lodges” or “Masonic orders.” He has also liked pages such as “Satanic Communism”, “hermetic occult sciences” and “anti-psychopathic coach,” and others regarding the “Wicca” cult, a neo-pagan religion linked to witchcraft and other ancient creeds.

Although Interpol confirmed he has no record in Brazil, the suspect does have a dossier on blades. On March 17, 2021, he was intercepted by Buenos Aires City Police for driving without a rear license plate. At the time, he claimed to be an employee of a telephone company and explained that the license plate was missing due to a collision a few days before.

When he opened one of the car doors, a 35-centimeter-long knife fell out of the vehicle. The weapon was automatically confiscated and a case against him was filed, but it was shelved shortly thereafter, on the grounds that it was not an important matter, in the prosecutors' view.

The perpetrator's mother was the Argentine citizen Viviana Beatriz Sabag, who died in 2017 due to a respiratory condition. She used to live with her son at the residence on Terrada Street.

According to commercial records, the suspect is registered as a provider of “urban and suburban non-regular automotive transport service of passengers of free offer; except by means of cabs and remises, car rental with driver and school transport.”