The attempted assassination of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, on September 1, 2022, has its first judicial pronouncement. Fernando Sabag Montielthe man who aimed and tried to shoot centimeters from the face of the then vice president at the door of her home, was sentenced this Wednesday to 10 years in prison by the Federal Oral Court No. 6, made up of judges Ignacio Fornari, Sabrina Namer and Adrián Grünberg. His ex-partner Brenda Uliarte, who used to display himself on social networks with a weapon, and was in the same area of the attack, has been sentenced to eight years in prison. Both have been accused by prosecutor Gabriela Baigún of triple aggravated homicide by treachery in its mode of political violence and for the use of a firearm. The reasons for the ruling will be known on December 9. Sabag Montiel had no qualms during the hearings in confessing his desire to assassinate the former president, alleging ethical issues that he never knew how to explain. He only managed to say: ““It is corrupt, it steals and it harms society.”. Since he has a previous four-year sentence for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material He must remain in a prison unit for four more years.
The third of those involved, Nicolas Carrizowho was assigned the status of leader of the group “Los Copitos”, who posed as street vendors of snow sugar in front of the home of the former head of state, was acquitted because the prosecution withdrew the accusation against him. Carrizo sent messages celebrating the action at the time. He said they were joking. “Maybe I could have offended you and, if so, I apologize. because I don’t think that. “I did it to make jokes.”
Unimpeachable
In its final argument, Sabag Montiel’s defense, in the hands of the official defender Fernanda López Puleio, had requested the absolution. The citizen of Brazilian origin, the lawyer maintained, is unimpeachable for psychological reasons. “He was a slave to his messianic delirium.” In his final words, Sabag Montiel compared himself to prosecutor Alberto Nisma, who died in January 2015 in conditions that could not be reliably verified. Anti-Kirchnerists speak of murder while all signs point to suicide. In Uliarte’s case, her lawyer, the fourth she had throughout the process, maintained that she had lost the ability to face a judicial process also for psychological reasons.
More than 150 witnesses
The assassination attempt caused a strong political and emotional impact on Argentina why reintroduced political violence into its scene almost four decades after the democratic recovery. The return to institutionality contemplated a shared conviction of all forces that this country could not return to the path of assassination as a way of settling controversies.
The investigation into the impactful events began with a stumble that invited suspicion. Sabag Montiel’s telephone number could not be subject to an expert opinion. The device was damaged while in police custody. Prosecutor Baigún regretted that “most of the information contained” in the device had been lost, which was mysteriously reset to its factory values before they were able to examine it. “A large part of the conversations that Sabag had on dates close to the event are unknown,” he said.
The oral trial began at the end of June 2024 and 157 witnesses have testified. The former president’s lawyers have severely questioned a judicial process that has excluded the intellectual authors of the action that sought to physically eliminate the Peronist leader.
Judge María Eugenia Capuchetti decided to “partially archive” the investigation into the alleged role of Gerardo Milmana right-wing deputy who has also served as an advisor to the current Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich. For Fernández de Kirchner, the assassination attempt was not dissociated from the trial that he also faced for cases of corruption in public works during his Government (2007-2015). “When after the attack, I read on the cover of Clarín ‘The bullet that didn’t come out, but the failure that will come out’ (in reference to the trial against her for corruption in public works under the Government), I always thought that if the bullet had come out, that newspaper would have titled: Finally, Cristina did not know how to dodge the bullet,” said Fernández de Kirchner ironically. The former president is serving a six-year prison sentence that she is serving at her home in the south of the city of Buenos Aires.
The far-right Javier Milei days ago took credit for the sentence against Fernández de Kirchne, and said that the complaints against his main candidate for deputy, José Luis Espert, for his relationship with a businessman accused in the United States of drug trafficking were “revenge” because “I am the first president who made the decision for me to go to prison”. Her lawyer, Gregorio Dalbón, immediately made a presentation in court. “That phrase is not a political opinion: it is the admission of an act of illegal power, “a decision manifestly contrary to the constitutional order and the independence of the Judiciary.”
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