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Vice-President Amado Boudou (photo: Paula Ribas/Télam/ef)
Judge Ariel Lijo has charged Vice-President Amado Boudou on charges of passive bribery and incompatible negotiations in the Ciccone case. The resolution was announced late on Friday night. Five other people involved in the case were also prosecuted.
The ruling was expected to be delivered no earlier than the end of this week, however it is believed that a request by Boudou on Thursday to expand on his testimony prompted the judge to rush the proceedings.
The Vice-President’s lawyer, Diego Pirota, announced that the prosecution will be appealed. According to Pirota, the judge “did not base his decision on evidence, he only weaved a fictitious speculation based on certain journalistic accounts.” He did, however, say the ruling did not surprise him or Boudou. The appeal process could take months.
The prosecutor, Jorge Di Lello, expressed his satisfaction with Judge Lijo’s ruling. “I’m satisfied because I think that with the all the difficulties and all our shortcomings, the Public Ministry and the federal justice followed their conviction of doing what they should.” He also highlighted that “in the case of incompatible negotiations, it’s not even necessary that there is a personal gain by the person carrying them out.”
Vice-President Boudou was on a official trip to Cuba when the judge’s decision was announced and flew to Panama last night, to attend the inauguration of president-elect Juan Carlos Varela tomorrow. He is expected to return to Buenos Aires on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.
The government has kept quiet on the news. When asked about the case this morning, Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich said that he did not talk to President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner about it and refrained from “giving an opinion about a judge’s ruling”. He then criticised the opposition and the media for the uneven attention given to the Boudou case in comparison with the case of Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri, who has been prosecuted for espionage.
Some members of the opposition have asked that Boudou resign, whilst others, such as Sergio Massa from Frente Renovador and Gerardo Morales from the Unión Cívica Radical, entertained the possibility of impeaching the Vice-President.
Five other accused were also prosecuted by Judge Lijo: José María Nuñez Carmona, Alejandro Vandenbroele, Rafael Resnick Brenner, Guillermo Reinwick, and Nicolás Ciccone.
Boudou is the first vice-president to be prosecuted in the country’s history.
The post Vice-President Prosecuted in Ciccone Case appeared first on The Argentina Independent.
