An appeals court in Buenos Aires has confirmed the trial of former president Alberto Fernández for allegedly beating and threatening his ex-partner, former first lady Fabiola Yáñez.
Fernández, 66, is accused of "major and minor injuries aggravated by having been committed in a context of gender violence with coercive threats."
The offences are alleged to have taken place across an eight-year span that includes the four-year term the veteran Peronist served as president (2019-2023).
Reacting to the development, Fernández reiterated his complete denial of the charges against him, denying that he had ever injured his partner. He said he had filed complaints of “false testimony” against Yañez.
If convicted and found guilty, Fernández could face a maximum of 18 years in prison.
Fernández appealed an indictment by a federal court of first instance back in February, but Buenos Aires City Federal Appeals Court on Tuesday confirmed the indictment, a decision that will likely lead to oral proceedings.
The decision was taken by the second courtroom of the Appeals Chamber with judges Martín Irurzun and Eduardo Farah voting in favour and Roberto Boico in dissent.
A lien of 10 million pesos on the ex-president’s assets was likewise confirmed while defence bids to quash the proceedings were rejected.
In the 82-page ruling, Irurzun said that "the different forms of gender-based violence that the accused continuously exercised on the victim between 2016 and 2024" had been “sufficiently proven.”
The magistrate also noted that the violence caused "serious damage" to the health of the former first lady.
"It is probable that the crimes were committed in the way they were described by the prosecution," wrote Irurzun, who highlighted the "marked inequality of power" between the couple.
The events "occurred in a very special venue [Olivos presidential residence], heavily guarded by federal officials under the command of Fernández," he continued.
"It has been established that the nature of their relationship forced the victim into a kind of reclusion in a guest room of the residence. She was also extremely isolated and aided by direct relatives who testified in the case. Evaluating this context in its true dimension is fundamental," he concluded.
The dissenting minority vote of Boico ruled a lack of evidence, requesting an in-depth investigation. He proposed exonerating Fernández for now given the flaws and "bias" in the investigation.
Yáñez, 43, filed a complaint against the former head of state – by then her ex-partner – last August after messages detailing alleged violence were exposed in a separate fraud investigation against him.
The messages, which included alleged photographic evidence, were found on a phone belonging to Fernández’s private secretary, María Cantero.
The phone was being analysed as part of a probe into alleged influence-peddling during Fernández’s 2019-2023 government.
After initially deciding not to press charges, Yáñez later contacted investigating judge Julián Ercolini to file a criminal complaint “for the blows I received from him and the threats I have been suffering,’” her lawyer said previously.
The court’s ruling this Tuesday upholds Ercolini’s decision to send the case to trial, which was already decided with prosecutor Ramiro González.
The former president denied in a statement in February that he had exercised "physical, psychological or economic violence" against his ex-partner, and during the trial he questioned the lack of eyewitnesses to what he is accused of, that the chats were not extracted from the original device and that the bruises corresponded to a cosmetic treatment.
– TIMES/AFP/NA
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