Former president Alberto Fernández has been ordered to stand trial for allegedly beating his ex-partner, former first lady Fabiola Yáñez.
Fernández, 65, rejects the charges against him. In a 200-page writ filed with the courts, he dismisses the allegations as “an unprecedented procedural scam,” stating he has “never exercised physical, psychological or economic violence against Fabiola Yáñez.”
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.
According to a ruling issued Monday by the judge, Fernández will stand accused of causing "minor and serious injuries" to Yáñez and of subjecting her to "coercive threats."
The judge wrote the acts were committed in a "context of gender violence," evidenced by the asymmetrical power relationship between the duo.
Ercolini wrote in his 184-page ruling that the evidence gathered showed “the existence of the habitual and continuous nature of the violence that, in different ways, Fernández would have exercised on the named Yañez."
The judge referred in his brief to two specific injuries that correspond to leaked photos published by the press, showing Yáñez with a black eye and a bruised arm.
If convicted and found guilty, Fernández could face a maximum of 18 years in prison.
The pair separated after the former president left office in 2023. They have a son together, Francisco, who was born the previous year.
Fernández, a veteran Peronist operator who oversaw a turbulent presidency, denies the accusations.
Judge Ercolini has placed a 10-million-peso freeze on part of Fernández's assets and obliged him to give notice of 72 hours of any planned absence from his home city of Buenos Aires.
However, he stressed that the former president “was subject to and had a positive attitude towards the process,” which is why he rejected a call for him to be detained or remanded in custody before the trial.
Fernández has expressed his unhappiness with Ercolini in interviews, accusing him of impartiality. He has also called for the removal of the prosecutor leading the case, Ramiro González.
His lawyer, Silvina Carreira, tried unsuccessfully to remove the judge from the case, accusing him of bias.
"The analysis of all the evidence gathered in the case allowed us to prove that former president Fernández exercised different types of violence against his partner, practically from the beginning of their relationship.
“According to the definitions of Law 26.485 on the Integral Protection of Women, psychological, physical and economic violence was detected," the National Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
– TIMES/AFP/NA/PERFIL
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