The Federal Criminal Court of Cassation decided to strengthen a series of measures to speed up the oral trial in the Bribery Notebooks case, in which Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and 86 other defendants stand as defendants. Judges Daniel Petrone, Gustavo Hornos, Angela Ledesma, Carlos Mahikis and Mariano Borinsky have called the Federal Oral Court No. 7 to a meeting next Tuesday, November 18, to determine a plan that will allow more dynamism of the process.
The meeting will seek to agree on concrete actions, including expanding the number of weekly hearings, moving from a virtual to an in-person format and using the recently remodeled AMIA room in Comodoro Bay. The judges’ goal is to promote discussion and avoid delays in a file considered symbolic within the investigations into corruption in public administration.
So far, hearings are being held only on Thursdays via Zoom. However, in the Court of Appeal, the idea of adding days – at least three per week – and canceling the summer vacation prevails to prevent new delays. The proposal also supports the imminent completion of works on the AMIA Room, which has a capacity of approximately 200 people, and which is scheduled to open at the end of the month.
The judges of the Federal Oral Court No. 7, Enrique Méndez Signori, Germán Castelli and Fernando Canero, must analyze together with the Court of Cassation the mechanisms that will facilitate the transition to this new scheme. Alternatives include coordinating agendas, the logistics of physical space, and rescheduling the charge-reading sections.
The trial began on November 6, with 87 defendants communicating remotely. The initial session was broadcast on the Supreme Court’s YouTube channel, and lasted several hours, and its start was delayed by about an hour due to technical and organizational problems. So far, more than half of the main accusation signed by prosecutor Carlos Stornelli, a document of about 225,000 words expected to be completed this week, has been read.
The cassation aims to move the process forward without interruption and for the oral hearings to take place more promptly. In the country’s highest criminal court, they consider that the size of the file and the institutional size of the case justify a more flexible and personalized dynamic to ensure transparency and continuity in the development of the trial.
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