Police in the northern province of Misiones are intensifying their search for a fugitive former provincial lawmaker accused of child pornography offences.
An international arrest warrant has been issued for libertarian ex-deputy Germán Kiczka, a 44-year-old lawmaker from the Activar party in Misiones, who has been formally declared a fugitive from justice.
Kiczka, 44, was declared ‘in absentia’ by a court in the northeastern province after police were unable to locate him.
The ex-lawmaker has been charged with the possession and distribution of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors. According to the investigation, Kiczka allegedly downloaded nearly 600 pornographic files involving children and adolescents.
Kiczka was expelled by the provincial legislature last Thursday in a majority vote for which he was not present.
Efforts to locate him have since failed. Authorities believe the former provincial deputy has fled over the border into Paraguay or Brazil via an illegal border crossing. His departure from national terrain was not registered with immigration officers.
Reports on Monday said prosecutors have accessed two audio messages that indicate Kiczka travelled to Puerto Iguazú, where he stayed one night at a hotel.
Activar, which is allied with President Javier Milei’s La Libertad Avanza coalition nationally, has publicly disowned their former colleague.
“We are a party that got involved in politics to build a better country and break with old practices. We have an unwavering commitment to transparency and respect for the law,” they stressed in their communiqué.
The party placed itself “at the disposal of the justice system to collaborate and comply with everything.”
Kiczka’s former colleague, provincial lawmaker Pedro Puerta, described the revelations about his until recent friend as “repugnant” and “completely disgusting.”
“‘I have nothing to do with him. I find him completely disgusting and I never imagined that someone facing such accusations would have sat next to me,” said Puerta.
Search intensifies
Argentina’s justice system asked police in neighbouring Paraguay and Brazil to assist in the search for Kiczka, which has intensified in recent days.
Questions are being asked as to how the ex-deputy managed to flee, given the investigation into the alleged offences began some time ago.
The Activar politician is seriously implicated in the ongoing investigation, which was initially launched in the United States.
Cybercrime experts found nearly 600 pornographic images involving children and adolescents on the ex-lawmaker’s personal devices and computer. They include images of child pornography, sexual abuse, rape incest and zoophilia, as well as compromising chat messages.
As a result of the analysis, “activities were also detected in P2P (peer-to-peer) file-sharing programmes, which are encrypted and require a password,” reported local news outlets.
Police carried out raids last Thursday in the city of Apóstoles, where the former legislator is from. They are also seeking his brother Sebastián, who is also involved in the case.
Both of the brothers have been charged with possession of and distribution of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors.
Chat messages sent by Sebastián Kiczka imply that he may have sexually abused and raped children.
Apóstoles Court Judge Miguel Ángel Faría has activated an international arrest warrant with Interpol after attempts to locate Kiczka and his brother at addresses they have declared before the courts were unsuccessful.
Party distances itself
Misiones provincial deputy Pedro Puerta, speaking to the El Dopolis outlet, said he had asked Kiczka to resign his seat in the provincial legislature.
“When the news of the raid broke, we gave him a couple of hours to explain himself. We could not ignore the gravity of the situation, so we asked for his resignation immediately. We do not allow anyone to hide behind privileges,” Puerta said in an interview.
“‘He was not a prominent figure within our structure, he was simply one of the party's proxies,” he added, playing down Kiczka’s role.
Puerta, the son of former governor Ramón Puerta, said Activar would work with the Legislature’s authorities and assist investigations.
“We are ready to collaborate in any way necessary. This will allow the party to provide all relevant information,” he said.
“I no longer have a relationship [with Kiczka], I have no link,” said Puerta.
“We are all equally devastated. We are all from the same town [Apóstoles], we have known each other for many years. We want justice to act,” he said.
Over the weekend, national deputy Margarita Stolbizer (GEN-Buenos Aires Province) accused the national government of failing to respond.
She argued that if the allegations had been cast against “a Peronist or a Radical,” the Milei administration and the media “would not stop pointing out his political affiliation.”
Kiczka “is Milei/LaLibertadAvanza/pro-government” and there is a “complicit silence,” said the politician in a post on X.
“How they hide or dissimulate the follies of those who govern,” complained the deputy.
Milei makes controversial post
President Milei, who has not yet commented on the scandal publicly, referred to the furore with a bad taste joke on social media.
Milei, 53, reposted a post featuring a digitally altered image of Kiczka with national lawmaker Martín Tetaz (Unión Cívica Radical-Buenos Aires City).
"Graphic proof of the paedophile deputy of Misiones wanting to abuse a little boy," reads te text accompanying the image, which riffs on Tetaz’s height.
Consulted by the Perfil newspaper for a response, Tetaz preferred not to.
"The aggressions speak of the aggressor; any response would put me on his level. I prefer to continue talking about increases for pensioners, explaining to society how it is financed," he said emphatically.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
Comments