The first courtroom of the Buenos Aires city Federal Court has removed judge Claudio Bonadio from the so called Hotesur case, following a raid ordered by the judge in Santa Cruz province carried out by Metropolitan Police agents.
The court ruled the nullity of an order issued by Bonadio, after a presentation by Romina Mercado, director of Hotesur and niece of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, removing the judge.
Judges Eduardo Freiler and Jorge Ballestero voted in favor of the nullity while Eduardo Farah voted against.
According to a report aired by C5N, the controversial raid ordered by Bonadio was backed with money from the capital’s government, which paid the logistical costs, accommodation and the salaries of the Metropolitan agents involved.
Bonadio had ordered the raid on a real estate company belonging to Máximo Kirchner, the son of President Cristina Fernández and also director of the Hotesur hotel enterprise, investigated for irregularities.
Bonadio, instead of sending Federal police officers as is custom in such cases, used members of the force created by City mayor Mauricio Macri.
In his ruling, Freiler said Bonadio’s actions in the case generated “grave harm to the defendants’ rights”. The magistrate draw attention to the controversial raid carried out in Santa Cruz province with Metropolitan police agents.
“Bonadio delays a decision related to his competence in the case, but issues an order to make several probes that affects people’s rights – I mean presentation orders directed to several private businesses and official organisms – that – again – had an unusual repercussion in massive media,” he said.
“Furthermore, I cannot avoid mentioning that the judge did not choose any of the federal security forces available to carry out the probes – Federal Police, Gendarmerie, Prefecture, Airport Security Police -, but instead he chose the Metropolitan Police, although the investigation was carried outside its jurisdiction (according to law 2894 of the Buenos Aires city Public Security code),» he added.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald