The country’s Supreme Court of Justice upheld a four-year prison sentence against the former Federal Planning Minister, Julio de Vido, in the context of the case of the Once Tragedy that occurred on February 22, 2012, when a train on the Sarmiento line crashed into the platform and killed 52 passengers, while 789 others were injured of varying severity.
The ruling indicates that the sentence was ready to be served and opens the way for the former official of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner – who was never imprisoned in this case – to go to prison. In fact, following the court’s decision, the Oral Tribunal No. 4 (TOF 4) – the one that convicted him – summoned De Vido to appear on Thursday in Comodoro Bay, with the aim of making his arrest effective. However, it is expected that the defense will request the benefit of house arrest, given that the accused is over 75 years old.
For the judges of the court, Horacio Rosati, Carlos Rosencrantz and Riccardo Lorenzetti, the former Kirchnerian official was a necessary participant in the crime of fraudulent administration at the expense of the public administration, because he would have failed to comply with his duties to monitor the use of public funds allocated to the Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA).
In this context, the judges rejected the appeals submitted by De Vido’s defense, which demanded his innocence, and the appeals submitted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which demanded a harsher sentence.
The court’s decision not only ratifies the four-year prison sentence against the former minister, but also permanently deprives him of holding public office, and represents a decisive step in the outcome of the judicial process that began after the tragedy that occurred more than 13 years ago.
Arrest warrant
As we mentioned, after what was resolved by the court, TOF 4 summoned De Vido to Thursday in Comodoro Bay, with the aim of making his detention effective.
“Based on what was decided by the State Supreme Court of Justice in the framework of the above-mentioned files, the sentence imposed on Julio Miguel de Vido has become final, therefore, in accordance with the provisions of Article 375 of the Federal Code of Criminal Procedure, it is appropriate to proceed with its implementation,” Judge Ricardo Basillo ruled in the document that the defense is expected to appeal to the former official to benefit from house arrest.
The decision added: “In accordance with the standards adopted by this court in its previous interventions, the convict will be summoned to appear next Thursday, November 13, 2025, at ten in the morning, so that his arrest will be effective.”
Although the time coincides with the second session of the oral trial for the bribery notebooks (in which De Fido is accused of belonging to an illegal association), the court will summon him early, at 8:30.
The former planning minister was never detained over the Al-Once tragedy, for which he was acquitted of the crime of negligent destruction, linked to the deaths and injuries resulting from the train accident. He was convicted only because he did not properly control the use of public funds allocated to Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA).
The punishment that could now fall on De Vido occurs within the framework of the second trial for this reason. The first case ended in December 2015 with the conviction of the train driver and two former transport ministers, Ricardo Jaime and Juan Pablo Schiavi; Former owners and managers of the railway service.
Although he never went to prison for the tragic plane crash, de Vido was first arrested in October 2017, when he lost his privileges as national representative and the Ministry of Justice began investigating him for alleged irregularities in the management of public funds linked to the Yacimientos Carboniferous Río Turbio. On that occasion, he was held in pretrial detention in Marcos Paz prison, while other corruption complaints were filed against him.
He was released from prison after two years, and remained in his home for the next six months, until he regained his freedom in March 2020, and since then he has not been behind bars again.
After today’s legal setback, De Vido also has a long legal journey ahead of him in cases such as the Quadernos and Skanska cases. He also faces penalties for fraud in purchasing scrap trains from Spain and Portugal and in purchasing liquefied natural gas.
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