Alberto Fernández relieved the auditor of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), Cristina Caamaño, of the obligation to keep secrecy and confidentiality so that she testifies on Tuesday in the case she is investigating whether there was political espionage during the Government of Mauricio Macri.
Decree 139/2022 regulating the “Duty of Confidentiality” was signed by the President, the Chief of Staff Juan Manzur, and the Minister of Justice, Martín Soria, and published this morning in the Official Gazette.
“Please tell Mrs. Auditor of the FEDERAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, a decentralized body operating within the framework of the PRESIDENCY OF THE NATION, Cristina Liliana CAAMAÑO IGLESIAS PAÍZ (D.N.I. No. 12,946,045) of the obligation to keep secret and confidentiality, under the terms of National Intelligence Law No. 25,520 and its amendments and regulatory regulations, exclusively on the facts investigated in the context of case No. 14.149/2020 titled 'MELO FACUNDO Y OTROS S/INVESTIGATION OF CRIMES... 'which is being processed by Federal Criminal and Correctional Court No. 8, Secretariat No. 16″, establishes the decision of the Power of Attorney Executive.
However, it was clarified that “the waiver does not contemplate the possibility of (Caamaño) pronouncing the names of agents, agency data, collateral services and/or any other circumstance that, because it is not strictly linked to the object of the process, could violate internal security, defence national and the foreign relations of the Nation”.
The AFI auditor was summoned by the federal judge of the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court No. 8, Marcelo Martínez De Giorgi, to give testimony on Tuesday in the case investigating “the possible commission of crimes of public action linked to intelligence activities prohibited by law, and not to activities or information that it has been necessary to classify in the interest of internal security, national defense or foreign relations of the Nation, as established by National Intelligence Act No. 25,520 and its amendments”.
According to judicial sources told Agencia Télam, Caamaño will use the prerogative of making a written statement and will therefore be sent a list of questions.
Exactly one month ago, De Giorgi ordered 43 test measures to revive the cause that investigates illegal espionage against politicians, prisoners, journalists and trade unionists. In addition to Caamaño, the magistrate summoned the national deputy of Juntos for Change, Diego Santilli -one of the victims of espionage-, former Defense official José Luis Vila -he suffered an attack on his home-; Mariano Macri, brother of the former president following his statements in the book “Hermano” by Santiago O'Donnel on the handling of wiretaps; and the judge who refused to arrest the Moyanos and denounced pressure from the AFI, Luis Carzoglio.
In addition, De Giorgi had asked the AFI auditor to provide the video of the filming at Banco Provincia where the then Buenos Aires Minister of Labour, Marcelo Villegas, talks about setting up a Gestapo to persecute the guilds.
Mariano Macri, who was summoned to testify yesterday at 10 a.m., submitted a brief requesting reschedule of the hearing.
A few weeks ago, five presidents of federal chambers from different parts of the country were in charge of acting as judges of the Supreme Court to review the case at the highest level. In principle, Javier M. Leal de Ibarra (from the Federal Chamber of Comodoro Rivadavia), Ramón Luis González (from the Federal Chamber of Corrientes), Mario Rodolfo Leal (Federal Chamber of Tucumán), Mariano Llorens (Buenos Aires Federal Chamber) and Juan Pablo Salas (Federal Chamber of San Martín) had been drawn.
However, both Salas and Llorens excused themselves. Llorens was precisely one of the two judges who, from the Federal Chamber, said that the macrista AFI had not been an illegal association and provoked the reaction to Cristina Kirchner's complaint. And in fact the Kirchnerism of the bicameral committee for monitoring intelligence agencies called for impeachment in the Council of the Judiciary for Llorens and his colleague Pablo Bertuzzi, who signed the resolution.
Salas and Llorens were replaced by the judges of the alternate list: Juan Carlos Bonzón (of the Economic Criminal Chamber) and Guillermo Alberto Antelo (of the Federal Civil and Commercial Chamber).
For its part, Chamber IV of the Federal Chamber of Cassation has already received appeals from the various parties against the judgment of the Federal Chamber. They must assess whether the questions made by the various parties, including CFK, are admissible for review by that body. There is not only the position of the complainants but also of the defendants themselves, such as former spies Leandro Araque and Facundo Melo saying that they were following orders.
The cause of illegal espionage during macrismo was born in Lomas de Zamora in the midst of the pandemic. There it was first determined that Cristina Kirchner had been monitored by AFI agents at her home and at the Patria Institute, after that there had been a series of follow-ups to politicians, trade unionists, judges and journalists, and later the accusation for monitoring Kirchner prisoners was extended.
The judge of Lomas de Zamora Juan Pablo Augé, in line with the prosecutor Cecilia Incardona, assured that there was an illegal association set up by the AFI. The ruling came when Judges Borinsky and Carbajo had already decided that the case fell within the competence of Comodoro Py. Under the magnifying glass of the Retiro courts, judges Llorens and Bertuzzi affirmed at the end of December that there had been no unlawful association but specific acts of illegal espionage, noting that several of the facts investigated were supported by court orders. They also flipped the chapter of prisoners k. Thus, the judges dictated the lack of merit of the majority of those involved, although they confirmed the prosecutions of the members of the SuperMarioBoss chat, the spies who shared the follow-ups they did on WhatsApp.
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