Former Argentine President and current Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her children will not be tried in the so-called Hotesur so-scandal case because there were no illegal actions involved, a federal court in Buenos Aires ruled Friday. Hence, all charges have been dismissed.
Thousands took out to the streets in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires and the country's main cities with flags on Thursday, July 9th, Independence Day to protest pandemic restrictions for businesses, corruption, and magistrates decision to send under house arrest one of the most notorious characters of the country's corrupt practices in the awarding of public works contracts.
Argentine vice president Cristina Fernandez is back in Buenos Aires from Cuba with her daughter who has been under medical treatment in Havana for a year. The two immediately left for their home where they will comply with the mandatory fourteen day self isolation for any passengers arriving in Argentina from overseas because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Argentina's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that ex-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's corruption trial can go ahead; after protesters demonstrated against rumours the case might be delayed. Trial is set to begin on Tuesday over accusations that CFK favoured businessman Lazaro Baez in the attribution of 52 public works contracts worth 46 billion pesos (US$1.2 billion) during her 2007-15 presidency.
An Argentine appeals court Thursday upheld the September decision by judge Claudio Bonadio whereby Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) must stand trial and be preemptively imprisoned throughout the proceedings for having allegedly received millionaire bribes from businessmen in the Kirchnerist governments (2003-2015).
Argentine national deputy Máximo Kirchner and eldest son of former presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, appeared in court on Tuesday morning to testify in the so-called ‘notebooks’ corruption case, probing the alleged payments of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks siphoned off from public works projects.
A former Rio Gallegos civil servant said Cristina and Máximo Kirchner were involved in the 2013 operation to prevent the cash from being found during a court-mandated raid. Danilo Alberto Penissi testified before Judge Claudio Bonadio in the investigation into the notebooks of corruption case.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri linked the poor state of the country's infrastructure to the so called “K corruption notebooks”, but also praised that truth is coming to light and in just two years Argentina's standing in the Transparency rating had gone from position 54 to 17.
The Argentine government will allow companies whose officials are named in a corruption probe to continue work on existing projects and to bid for new ones. Contracts will be honored and companies won’t be punished for what employees may have done, Transport Minister Guillermo Dietrich said in an interview in Buenos Aires.
Argentine prosecutors questioned a construction executive related to President Mauricio Macri on Monday as part of a sprawling investigation into bribe payments made to the former government. Angelo Calcaterra, the former head of construction company Iecsa and Macri’s cousin, told prosecutors he was told by officials in former President Cristina Fernandez’ administration to pay cash in exchange for public works contracts.