The judge Norma Abate de Mazzucchelli (71), reported for requesting a bribe of $8,000,000, presented her resignation this morning as president of the Fourth Chamber of Civil, Commercial and Mine Affairs of that province, as confirmed to Clarion judicial sources. But the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) of La Rioja did not accept it. They suspended her from her position preventively and opened a summary against her. The case is headed to a trial jury.
Abate was reported by the owner of a well-known bookstore in La Rioja to whom she He demanded money to speed up a succession process that was stagnant. The woman made the presentation at the Capital Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday afternoon and included videos in which the judge appears.
The case was left in the hands of the prosecutor Luis González Aguirre who charged the chambermaid with illegal levy (article 266 of the Penal Code) which punishes with a sentence of 1 to 4 years in prison and special disqualification from 1 to 5 yearsto “a public official who, abusing his position, requests, demands or causes to be paid or improperly delivered, by himself or through an intermediary, a contribution, a right or a gift or collects greater rights than those that correspond.”
However, Abate still has the privileges that his position in the Judiciary gives him. Following the accusation, the TSJ began disciplinary proceedings. This morning, at 9:30, and after the scandal came to light in Telenight Abate submitted his resignation from his position. But she was not accepted.
In the afternoon, the Judicial Council will be formed to send the case to a trial jury in the Chamber of Deputies of La Rioja, according to what they told Clarion judicial sources.
In Extraordinary Agreement No. 104/24 the TSJ ordered the opening of the summary to the judge in accordance with the disciplinary regulations for the judicial function “due to the complaints made against him.”
He also arranged the preventive suspension in his functions “while the criminal process lasts and without prejudice to the sanction that may apply in the administrative sphere.”
Norma Abate de Mazzucchelli, judge of La Rioja.
On the other hand, they appointed Raúl Fernando Bazán as instructor in charge of carrying out the summary information and Pablo Oliva as secretary of proceedings, the two members of the body of summaries of the Directorate of Summaries, Secretariat of Superintendence and Judicial Control.
The judges also resolved to communicate the actions to the Judicial Council and the Economic and Financial Secretariat of the TSJ to make the preventive suspension effective.
The judicial investigation will run through a channel independent of the administrative summary. If Abate loses his jurisdiction and the case progresses, he could go to oral trial in this case.
This morning Governor Ricardo Quintela requested the removal of his position after the complaint of the request for bribes that he announced Telenight.
“The events that occurred and were publicly reported are unacceptable and absolutely serious. Judge Abate de Mazzuchelli, accused of asking for bribes to resolve different cases, is attacking the trust of the Riojan people in Justice; thus, I requested the removal of his position and the investigation of this situation“Quintela said in X.
“Some time ago, I have promoted and spoken about the limit of the periodicity of judges to avoid, among other things, vices in the correct actions that Justice should have; that is why the conventional constituents are trying this issue for the Constitutional Reform. It is necessary for our society,” he stated.
Norma Abate de Mazzuchelli She is president of the Fourth Chamber of Civil, Commercial and Mines of La Rioja and has more than 30 years of experience in the Judicial Branch of that province. She was previously Chamber Secretary in the Second Chamber in Civil, Commercial, Labor and Mines and Investigative Judge of the Criminal and Correctional Investigative Court No. 1 of the First Judicial District.
The statement from the Association of Women Judges of Argentina
Abate de Mazzucchelli is also vice president of the Association of Women Judges of Argentina. The complaint about the request for bribes also fell like a bombshell there and this morning they announced the preventive suspension of her position and also as a partner of the entity.
The complaint of a request for bribes for $8,000,000
As far as he could know Clarion, the case began with the complaint of Manuela Saavedra, owner of a bookstore that is just three blocks from the Rioja Courts. The woman had been appointed as administrator of an estate in which she had also been declared heir.
The heirs had started the process four years ago and were already in the process of liquidating the assets of the succession. Since last year they were waiting for permission from Justice to have a bank account in which the deceased had US$87,000. Several times they had presented the paperwork with their lawyers but there was no progress.
Then Saavedra decided to go on his own to the Fourth Chamber where the succession was processed. It was there that he came across Abate’s proposal, which asked for money to expedite the file, according to the complaint.
The modus operandi to make the payment of the bribe effective, according to what a judicial source confided to Clarionit would be through the amount of the fees that they were going to set for the lawyers who represented the heirs in the file.
The judge then introduced herself to Saavedra in the bookstore. Not to buy something, but directly to talk about numbers. So it was that she would have suggested the figure of $8,000,000 drawing an 8 in a notebook. To Saavedra’s surprise, Abate would have lowered his expectations to $5,000,000 drawing a 5.
Prosecutor Luis González Aguirre charged Judge Abate de Mazzucchelli.
As the case is still very recent, investigators have not yet been able to determine if the bribe payment was made. However, the crime of “illegal exaction” for which González Aguirre charged Abate does not require that the payment of the gift be completed in order to be charged.
The Prosecutor’s Office of the 1st District of the Capital of Rioja also requested measures to protect the physical and mental integrity of the victim and her family members so that they can lead their lives freely, given the asymmetry of power between an ordinary citizen and an official with more than 30 years in Justice.
The videos of the bribes
“I don’t know that,” was the defense that Abate de Mazucchelli tried when she was approached by one of the journalists from Telenight who made the report that shook the Rioja Justice Department. However, this morning, he resigned from his position.
In a video shown by the news, the judge asks the complainant, Manuela Saavedra, a direct and concise question, in what appears to be a hidden camera: “How much do you think you can (pay)?” “Who did everything to you? Who managed everything for you? The lawyers were not here.”
Video
The judge of La Rioja Norma Abate de Mazzucchelli was denounced by a merchant for asking her for $8 million to expedite an inheritance procedure.
“It’s simple, Manuela. Nobody is going to put a gun to your chest here.”says Abate. He did it after write down the number 8 in a notebookas a suggestion of a possible amount for the hypothetical sum of money to be delivered, in millions, according to the complainant.
The case in question is a succession without a will, which has as heirs all of Arias’ nephews, among whom is Saavedra, and a sister of the man, who is alive.
The complainant, owner of a bookstore in La Rioja that she inherited from the family, said that she is the judicial administrator of that succession, process they have been with “for four years” and that “for different reasons it was very slow.”
Video
Judge Norma Abate de Mazzucchelli denied before the cameras that she had asked for money to expedite a file.
“For quite some time I had been asking for the release of funds because I needed them to meet the expenses of the succession and there was always a reason which is why they did not give me those funds,” explained Saavedra.
According to him, in a first meeting with Abate de Mazucchelli he asked him for explanations for the delay. “She told me that she knew my uncle and that she was going to do like a exception or please to know it and that he was going to help me get it out quickly,” he said.
According to the audio provided in the report, the judge noted: “I have a job here that is not mine. I do it because I feel sorry for this and it hurts me. Another one, I don’t give a damn.”
At another time, the judge also complains about his salary. “We get paid a shitty salary, we don’t reach a million pesos. How do you think you can live with that? ”She tells the complainant, who revealed that when she was leaving that meeting she received a suggestive “don’t forget about me” from the judicial official.
Saavedra said that Abate de Mazucchelli He later visited her in the bookstore.. “She pulled me aside and told me that the next day I could have the issue resolved and we could start with the services, but that That had a cost.because it was a lot of work,” he said.
She also assured that the next day, the judge sent her a woman who said she worked with her and assured that the documents were there to withdraw them and carry out the services. He then visited her again in her office, but her supposed good will had mutated into an apparent financial interest.
