The Federal Court of Criminal Cassation declared inadmissible an appeal filed by the defense of Walter Bento and confirmed the preventive detention of the dismissed judge, who has been detained in the Cacheuta prison since November 8, 2023.
This is what the magistrates of Chamber III resolved this Thursday, Carlos Mahiques, Javier Carbajo and Daniel Petronewho ratified the decision of the Federal Oral Court 2 (TOF 2) of Mendoza, which is carrying out the trial against Bento.
The former head of Federal Court No. 1 of Mendoza is prosecuted as leader of an illicit association who collected bribes from federal prisoners in exchange for judicial benefits, money laundering and illicit enrichment. After his dismissal, he was immediately detained by order of TOF 2.
His defense, led by Mariano Fragueiro Frías, appealed that decision and demanded his freedom. “until a final decision is made by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation that confirms the ruling of the trial court of Magistrates of the Nation.”
On April 4, the Chamber of Cassation surprised with a resolution that caused an earthquake in the Federal Court of Mendoza. With two votes to one, he determined that Bento’s arrest order had a series of deficiencies and demanded a new ruling from TOF 2. Specifically, Mahiques and Carbajo understood that the ruling needed to be substantiated and that the prosecutor had not been involved.
Bento’s lawyers immediately asked for the former judge’s freedom, but the judges Gretel Diamante, María Carolina Pereyra and Eliana Beatriz Ratta Rivas They ratified their decision. They also rejected in harsh terms the challenge raised by the defense.
“The accusation attributed to Walter Bento in the request for submission to trial constitutes a series of crimes – to be proven in the debate that is taking place – whose penal scale in the abstract has a minimum of 5 years in prison to a maximum of 50 years. of prison”stated the members of TOF 2. And they anticipated that, in the event of a sentence, the sentence would be effective. “Therefore, the risk of circumvention appears to be strengthened in this instance of the oral debate, which will take a few more months to conclude.”they highlighted.
The former judge’s defense appealed again, but this time Cassation validated Bento’s arrest. “In the decision under study, the necessary and sufficient elements of conviction for the treatment of the issue were analyzed, and the appealed resolution contains foundations that constitute a reasoned derivation of the current law, all of which distances it from the absence of foundation and taint of intended arbitrariness”argument Petrone in your vote.
For its part, Mahiques He pointed out that the ruling of the TOF 2 of Mendoza “it now conforms to the premises stated by this Chamber referring to the insufficient foundation of its previous resolution”.
In the same vein, Carbajo He maintained that the new pronouncement is sustained “for an argument free of arbitrariness”, that fulfilled “the relevant procedural steps” and which included “the reasons that were previously omitted.”
With these arguments, the Chamber declared “the appeal filed by the defense of Walter Ricardo Bento is inadmissible.” In other words, endorsed and ratified the arrest of the former judge.
I like it:
I like Charging…
