Fernando André Sabag Montiel, the man who tried to assassinate Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is a “narcissist” with an outlandish discourse who has compared himself to anti-apartheid freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, according to an expert report filed with the court investigating the failed attack.
The report, details of which were quoted in an article by the Télam state news agency, was requested by prosecutors in an attempt to establish the assailant’s motivation and frame of mind.
Sabag Montiel, who was detained moments after after he unsuccessfully tried to shoot Fernández de Kirchner, the former two-term president, at close range on September 1, has given little testimony while in custody.
But details from the study, drawn up by forensic doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists at the request of prosecutors in the wake of the failed shooting attack, reveal that the 35-year-old has all but confessed to the attack.
"The act was simple. It is simpler than everyone thinks. Nobody told me. It doesn't have so much mystique," Sabag Montiel told the experts, according to judicial sources quoted by Télam, who said he is “calm now” the attack has passed.
Sabag Montiel has been charged with "attempted aggravated homicide" by Federal Judge María Eugenia Capuchetti, the judge overseeing the case. His partner Brenda Uliarte, 23, and 27-year-old Nicolás Gabriel Carrizo, considered to be the leader of the so-called ‘los copitos’ gang thought to be behind the attack, have also been detained and indicted.
The assassination attempt took place outside Fernández de Kirchner’s flat in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Recoleta. Sabag Montiel approached the ex-president from a crowd of supporters and aimed a .32-calibre pistol just inches from her face. The gun failed to fire.
The attacker has refused to be questioned formally and in statements has limited himself only to saying that his girlfriend was not involved in the assassination attempt.
"Brenda [Uliarte] had nothing to do with it and neither did I," he said in reference to his partner, who is also being prosecuted as a co-conspirator.
Investigators continue to be more interested in uncovering Uliarte's true role in the attack as they attempt to determine if Sabag Montiel was manipulated into the attack and if others played a significant role in its planning.
‘Narcissistic’
According to the expert report, Sabag Montiel has a "narcissistic" personality with traits of "pedantry and vanity." He presents an “extravagant and tedious" discourse and even compared himself to anti-apartheid activist and former South African president Nelson Mandela during questioning.
It also found that the accused is aware of "the prohibition of the norm," that is to say he is clear about what constitutes a crime or not, but that "he does not comply with it because" he believes he was "serving justice" in attempting to end Fernández de Kirchner's life.
The “consequences of the act” he carried out on September 1 “were not thought out but neither were they of interest" to Sabag Montiel, the report’s authors added.
According to them, the attacker said during questioning that his time behind bars is “a learning process” enabling him to “introspect” and “analyse” events.
He "believes that although justice is divine, he is paying for the mistakes of others and for his own" and "equates himself with [Nelson] Mandela given his condition” as a “political prisoner.”
– TIMES/AFP/NA
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