Buenos Aires: Argentina’s senate on Wednesday authorised investigators to search three homes belonging to former president Cristina Kirchner as part of the so-called corruption notebooks case. Claudio Bonadio, the judge leading the investigation in the multi-million dollar bribery case, had petitioned the Senate to partially lift Kirchner’s immunity to allow the residences to be searched.
As a senator, Kirchner enjoys congressional immunity from imprisonment, though not prosecution.
But all 67 senators present —including Kirchner herself — approved the partial lifting of that immunity to allow the searches as Bonadio seeks evidence the leftist former president accepted millions of dollars in bribes from businessmen in exchange for public works contracts.
In a fiery and defiant speech to the chamber, the 65-year-old reiterated that the cases against her were politically motivated.
“If there was something missing to consecrate the political persecution going on in Argentina, it was this... I am going to be the first elected senator to be searched.”
Facing trial in several other corruption cases, she has previously accused Bonadio of carrying out “judicial persecutions” aimed at derailing a possible run for the presidency next year.
Senators reached their decision after several hours of debate. Last week, the senate was unable to muster a quorum to debate the request.
This time however, senators appeared set to favour the magistrate’s request from the start, with Kirchner herself giving an indication she would bow to the seemingly inevitable. — AFP
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