Listening to the families of the victims of the sinking of the submarine San Juan were not illegal and were intended to ensure the security of the President. This was estimated by the national appeals chamber on Friday, July 15, when it revoked the indictment of former Argentinian president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019, right), accused of illicit espionage. The ship disappeared in November 2017 off the coast of Argentina. Found more than 900 meters deep in November 2018, his remains could never be refloated, despite the wishes of the families of the 44 deceased sailors.
“We consider that there is sufficient evidence to affirm that the activities deployed had the sole objective of presidential security and / or internal security, and for this reason were justified”, affirmed the three magistrates of the court, with reference to the information collected for months by the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) on the relatives of the victims, who had widely mobilized to demand the continuation of the search for the submarine and had waged an intense campaign to find out the truth.
1er December 2021, the former president had been indicted by a judge in Dolores (province of Buenos Aires), who had considered that the wiretapping and monitoring by AFI of the families had been intended to seek to “to know their activities, the places where they met, their personal data and those of those around them”, in order to’“influence the political and institutional situation of the country”. Of the “unlawful intelligence tasks, which were not based on legal authorization”, had argued the judge, before the case was referred to federal justice.
Eavesdropping, hacking and spinning
The families claimed to have been subjected to surveillance, telephone tapping and intimidation. At the end of 2017 and “at least all year 2018”they knew each other “heard”, had explained in December to World Luis Tagliapietra, father of a missing sailor. “We spotted people infiltrated within the families who posed as relatives of victims, but also hacking of our e-mail addresses, spinning and we were photographed”he reported.
The Dolores judge had released Mauricio Macri on bail of 100 million pesos (775,000 euros) and had forbidden him to leave the country. The ex-president has always firmly denied spying on the families and denounced political persecution. “Truth has won. Truth can still win in Argentina. Don’t lose faith”tweeted Friday Mr. Macri, 63, current executive chairman of the FIFA Foundation, and who obtained judicial authorization in early July to travel to Switzerland and France.
Already indicted for other illegal eavesdropping
Luis Tagliapietra considers that the revocation of the indictment is “grotesque”. The families of the victims announced that they would appeal the decision: “It’s a legal blow that makes us relive the same feeling as every time [qu’on nous remettait] a false daily report, at each meeting with the national authorities and at each false promise”, reports a statement signed by their lawyers.
“It was not justice that acquitted [l’ex-président]. It was his friends who saved him.” tweeted the Minister of Justice, Martin Soria, in reference to two of the judges of the appeal chamber, Pablo Bertuzzi and Leopoldo Bruglia, appointed to this post without going through a competition, as required by the procedure, during the mandate by Mauricio Macri.
It was not the first time that the ex-president had been implicated in this kind of affair. In 2010, when he was mayor of Buenos Aires, he had already been indicted for illegal wiretapping. An indictment which had followed the filing of a complaint by his own brother-in-law, Daniel Leonardo, in open conflict with the Macri family, and by Sergio Burstein, leader of the association of the Families of the victims of the attack against the mutual of Buenos Aires (AMIA), which left 85 dead and 300 injured in 1994. Mauricio Macri was finally exonerated in December 2015, even before a trial could be held, a few days after taking office. as President of the Republic.