His followers organized a caravan that will accompany him to the court.
Former Argentine president Mauricio Macri appears in court for the first time this Thursday to give an investigatory statement in a case for alleged espionage of relatives of 44 crew members who died in the sinking of a military submarine in 2017, during his presidency.
Macri, 62, is expected at 12:00 local time (10:00 in Ecuador) in the courts of Dolores, 200 km south of Buenos Aires, after missing two previous citations, the first time for being in the exterior and the second for having requested the challenge of Judge Martín Bava.
His followers organized a caravan that will accompany him to the court, a demonstration of support that will take place in the middle of the electoral campaign for the mid-term parliamentary elections scheduled for November 14 and in which his center-right coalition Together for Change expect an important vote.
“Why did they spy on us?”
The submarine ARA San Juan de la Marina Argentina, a 66-meter-long German-made TR-1700, disappeared in November 2017 with 44 people on board, when it was patrolling Argentine waters.
The ship was found a year later, at a depth of 900 meters, with the help of navies from other countries.
The complaint maintains that the relatives of the soldiers who died in the sinking of the ARA San Juan were subject to wiretapping and other interceptions during the year in which they sought to know their fate.
“We hope that Macri complies with the law and presents himself accordingly, that instead of attempting an absurd defense, he will tell us the truth about what were the reasons for spying on us illegally,” Luis Tagliapietra, father of one of the sailors, told AFP. plaintiff attorney in this case.
“False accusations”
Macri maintains that these are “false accusations” and tried to challenge the judge, but the Federal Chamber of Mar del Plata rejected that measure on Wednesday.
However, in a tense political environment, the Federal Chamber asked the judge for moderation in his expressions due to “the possible social impact” of a cause with “media and institutional repercussions” due to the quality of Macri’s former president (2015-2019).
The then intelligence services chiefs Gustavo Arribas and Silvia Majdalani are already on trial in the case.
The ex-president was prosecuted in 2010 for illegally wiretapping a relative of his and opponents when he was mayor of Buenos Aires (2007-2015), but was dismissed shortly after assuming the presidency in 2015. (I)
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