Former president of Argentina Mauricio Macri became a defendant on Wednesday (1) in the process in which he is accused of spying on family members of the 44 victims of the wreck of the ARA San Juan submarine, in 2017.
Judge Martín Bava decided that the defense of the former Argentine leader wants him removed from the case, considering that he is acting with political motivations. Macri’s lawyers say they will appeal.
The indictment claims that the former president carried out illegal eavesdropping and digitally monitoring conversations by relatives to find out what questions they would make to the government.
“The national government, commanded by the accused, illegitimately spied on the protagonists of one of the greatest tragedies experienced by Argentina during its administration. This was done, among other things, to anticipate the president’s movements and complaints by the family collective,” says the judge in the text of the resolution.
Macri even appeared in court when summoned, but refused to answer questions, only presenting a document in which he claims to be innocent. As the hearing took place during the electoral campaign of the Legislative election, Macri’s presence became a platform for opposition propaganda.
The then Argentine intelligence chiefs Diego Dalmau Pereyra and Martín Coste also became defendants. According to the judge’s decision, “the systematic carrying out of intelligence tasks against these families is prohibited by law.” “They were used to obtain information, produce intelligence, store data about people, including their political opinions and their membership of party, social, union, community and human rights organizations.”
The defense maintains that Macri “has never ordered illegal intelligence tasks and that the accusation implies ignorance of how the presidential custody system works, which allows the monitoring of people who may act in a hostile way against the president”. In the text he presented to the judge, Macri claims to be “absolutely innocent”. “I repudiate the parody of this disheveled accusation against me.”
While making the appeal, the defense also asks that the case be transferred to the federal courts of Comodoro Py, in Buenos Aires, because it claims they would be less biased than the court in Dolores. “The actions of a former president must take place in the country’s capital,” said lawyer Pablo Lanusse.
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