Former first lady Fabiola Yañez has reported her partner, former president Alberto Fernández, for “physical and mental violence”, in an online hearing from Spain with judge Julián Ercolini, hearing the case over insurance graft.
The judge has ordered “restriction and protection” measures, as confirmed by Noticias Argentinas via court sources.
“Over the last few hours she filed a criminal complaint against her former partner” said lawyer Juan Pablo Fioribello, representing the ex first lady,on television. He said “he found out” on Tuesday afternoon about the complaint because the situation “escalated”.
“She seemed very upset, she said, ‘I can’t take this situation anynmore and I’ve just reported it'”, he added.
The lawyer said that Yañez “had been in touch” with judge Julián Ercolini on Tuesday and “told him she wanted to reinstate the case and file a criminal complaint for the blows and threats” she had allegedly received from Fernández.
According to the lawyer’s account, the former first lady called the judge “from Spain” and confirmed she wanted to report Fernández for “the blows” she had allegedly received from the ex chief executive.
After the complaint was filed by her former partner, Alberto Fernández denied ever becoming violent: “I’ll prove before the courts the falseness of the complaint”, he said in a statement to the agency Noticias Argentinas.
As disclosed on Sunday by newspaper Clarín, Ercolini’s court was notified that in the seized mobile phone of Alberto Fernández’s secretary, María Cantero, there was proof of alleged gender-based violence by Fernández against Yañez.
The mobile phone was seized and expertly examined within the case being led by prosecutor Carlos Rívolo and judge Ercolini, looking into the intervention by brokers in policy contracts between State agencies, thanks to a particular presidential decree.
The events allegedly took place on different occasions, even when she was pregnant at the Olivos Residence.
On Monday, criminal lawyer Juan Pablo Fioribello, representing former first lady Fabiola Yañez, claimed that the ex president had told him he “had never in his life hit a woman”, denying the alleged gender-based violence events against the mother of his son.
Fioribello said that, after chats with proof of alleged violence by Fernández against his wife surfaced in the media, he asked the former president about it.
“He said: ‘I swear to God, I haven’t hit a woman in my life. I’ve had a thousand defects and I’ve made many mistakes, just like anyone else, more or less due to the political things I went through, but one thing I know for sure, and it’s that I’ve never become violent and I’ve never hit a woman”, said Fioribello on television on Monday.
The attorney elaborated and said that the former chief executive insisted: “I’ve never in my life hit a woman, nor have I ever laid a hand on Fabiola, please believe me”.
In parallel with the investigation over the insurance scandal, Alberto Fernández became involved in a new controversy over alleged evidence provided by the mobile phone of his historic secretary, María Cantero.
Though in Cantero’s mobile phone, information was sought on Alberto Fernández and his alleged link over an unlawful insurance plot, the court was notified that the mobile phone had evidence of a crime being potentially committed: gender-based violence against Yáñez, apparently perpetrated by her husband at the Olivos Residence.
Courts may also have chats and voice messages where Yáñez may have accused her husband of the alleged battery.
After the news became known, Juan Pablo Fioribello had downplayed the events on Sunday, considering it “was a heated argument by a couple and nothing more”.
Fioribello told Clarín that he had spoken to Fernández and he had “categorically denied” any “physical violence” against the former first lady. He stressed that he had had a chat with the ex head of State and he had assured him that it was only an argument and there was no physical violence.
--TIMES/PERFIL
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