The hearing was led by the assigned prosecutor Fabiana Corbo, after the retirement of the prosecutor Gabriela Fossati, who carried out the investigation.
Today, at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the justice system charged the president of the union of the National Administration of State Sanitary Works (OSE), Federico Kreimermanfor the crime of especially aggravated attack after he lit a smoke bomb inside the headquarters of the Uruguayan state company in a demonstration against the Arazatí project.
After the prosecutor’s original request Gabriela Fossati —who ceased to be part of the public ministry since last Monday—, the assigned prosecutor Fabiana Corbo was in charge of the hearing to formalize the accusation against the president of the Federation of OSE Officials (FFOSE), for the events that occurred on June 13. According to the Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson, Javier Benech, Kreimerman admitted to the prosecutor that he was the one who lit the smoke bomb with the aim of interrupting the bidding for the Arazatí project.
Faced with this, he was accused of crime of especially aggravated attackwhich contemplates a penalty of between three months in prison and three years in prison; and that it is described in article 171 of the Penal Code as an action that uses “violence or threat against a public official, with any of the following purposes: to prevent the official from assuming the function or taking possession of the position, to hinder his free exercise, that of obtaining their resignation or arrogance, hatred or contempt”.
The union claim against the accusation
According to Kreimerman’s defense, led by attorney Juan Fagundez, “the requirements for the criminal matter are not met” since, as the president of FFOSE declared, the objective behind the smoke bomb was “attract attention” and “interrupt an activity”but not to attack or violate any official—who was not even on the same floor as the demonstration.
At the time, for Fossati “there was an excess with the intention of hindering the bidding act (of the Neptune Project) that was being carried out”, regardless of whether the event occurred in the context of a mobilization.
On the other hand, different unions supported Kreimerman – the one who directs, at the head – and agreed that the actions of the Prosecutor’s Office are a step towards judicialization of social protest in the country. In that sense, the PIT-CNT expressed his “deep concern and rejection” and warned about the “very negative and dangerous” attitude of advancing a trial against the president of FFOSE for the acts that will be attributed to him today.
In a statement, the union center also called on the “pertinent authorities to ensure a duly fair and transparent legal processin which the circumstances and real context in which the action was carried out, which in no way can be classified as such, are taken into account.”
Source: Ambito
