The oral Court that will carry out the trial for the so-called “Cuadernos Case” summoned the “accused collaborator” Oscar Centeno for December 18 to complete a body of writing.
The expertise, ordered six years after the case was reported, will be carried out in the premises of the Court Palace, under the technical directives of the designated official experts, who will provide the necessary materials to carry it out.
Party experts who must be accredited in advance may also witness the proceedings.
A protected defendant
The Court informed the expert National Program for the Protection of Witnesses and Defendants of the Ministry of National Security, in order for Centeno’s transfer to be completed. It is for the purposes of implementing security measures given the condition of the former driver.
The main cause of the “notebooks”, whose trial will begin at the end of 2025, began with Centeno’s notes. In July 2018, he had unleashed a scandal of alleged bribery to obtain contracts in public works.
Former President Cristina de Kirchner and a dozen of her former collaborators were accused, as well as businessmen from the most important construction companies, many of whom declared themselves “repentant” so as not to be imprisoned.
The accusations arose from Centeno, a former driver for the Ministry of Planning who allegedly recorded in notebooks the trips he made with officials to collect bribes paid by businessmen.
The case was promoted at the time by the prosecutor Carlos Stornelli and the then judge Claudio Bonadio. Cristina Kirchner and 74 defendants will begin to be tried on November 6 of next year.
Alterations and deletions
One of the accused businessmen, Armando Loson, in a parallel file managed to prove that there were alterations, overwritings and deletions.
In that case, the judge Marcelo Martínez De Giorgi He prosecuted Jorge Bacigalupo, the friend of former remisero Oscar Centeno, without preventive detention. He accused him of making amendments to some of the notebooks, which record the payment of bribes from businessmen to Kirchner officials, in paragraphs referring to Armando Loson and Gerardo Ferreyra.
Then the Federal Court revoked that prosecution, ordered to deepen the investigation and carry out a new expertise on the originals.
Once brought up for debate, the Federal Oral Court 7 decided to carry out an expert report within the framework of the oral trial that will begin only at the end of 2025. The expert report was ordered to find out if Centeno was the author of the manuscripts.
The Directorate of Criminalistics and Forensic Studies of the National Gendarmerie will analyze the six reserved notebooks and the files with digital copies of the folders containing the reproduction of the notebooks.
It must be established whether the manuscripts were written by the same author, whether they are the handwriting of Oscar Centeno or third parties. In that case, which sections must be specified.
Telephones and tests
Last August, the TOF rejected a request from Cristina Kirchner’s defense to investigate the phone calls of the late judge Claudio Bonadio and the prosecutor Carlos Stornelli, who investigated the case and put the country’s big businessmen in prison at the time. Today everyone is free.
Meanwhile, he enabled the incorporation of the telephone numbers of the former Secretary of Public Works and “repentant” José López, which was one of the evidence that was used in the public works case.
The trial is scheduled to be held via Zoom once a week only on Thursdays. 626 witnesses are summoned.
Source: Ambito
