In March 2018, Elisa “Lilita” Carrio proposed, seconded by the deputies of the civic coalitiona bill for the “Prohibition of pardons, amnesties and commutation of sentences”. It involved a modification of the Criminal Code” and “modifications regarding the imprescriptibility of criminal action, in the corruption crimes”.
The project stated in its Article 1: “The penalties or criminal proceedings on the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes contemplated in articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and in the treaties international human rights with constitutional hierarchy, cannot be subject to amnesty, pardon or commutation of sentence, under sanction of absolute and incurable nullity of the act that provides it. Although it has been issued with a date prior to the enactment of this law.
And it added in its Article 3 the “pardon banamnesties or commutation of sentences in crimes of corruption”: “The penalties or criminal proceedings on the crimes committed against the Public Administration provided for in chapters VI (Bribery and influence peddling), VII (Embezzlement of public funds), VIII (Negotiations incompatible with the exercise of public functions), IX (Illegal exactions), IX bis (Illicit enrichment of officials and employees) and XIII (Concealment) of Title XI of the Second Book of the Penal Code; They cannot be subject to amnesty, pardon or commutation of sentence, under sanction of absolute and incurable nullity of the act that provides it. Although it has been issued with a date prior to the enactment of this law.
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The presentation made by the then Deputy Carrió and the Civic Coalition explained that crimes against humanity cannot be pardoned, and furthermore “Article 36 of our Magna Carta establishes the same prohibition for crimes against the institutional order and the democratic system, including serious intentional crimes against the State that entail enrichment. The provisions of art. 36 as a harmonious interpretation of the national constitution lead us to conclude that no crime expressly provided for in the letter of the constitution can be subject to the benefits of pardon, commutation of sentence or amnesty.
“The pardon, regulated in article 99 inc. 5 of the National Constitution, establishes that the President of the Nation can pardon or commute sentences for crimes subject to federal jurisdiction. This power suffers from the same restrictions that were indicated with respect to the power to grant amnesty. Without prejudice to the exception provided for in article 99 inc. 5º, while the pardon is not applicable in cases of impeachment, article 36 of the Constitution makes express reference to the crimes that are excluded of the benefits of pardon and commutation of sentences”, added the presentation of the law that was accompanied by citations of varied jurisprudence.
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For the Civic Coalition “Corruption crimes have already been declared imprescriptible by the Federal Chamber of La Plata, in an extraordinary ruling by the great jurist and judge Leopoldo Schiffrin in 2016, and then by the Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber in 2018″.
But the former Supreme Court justice, Eugene Raul Zaffaroni, had then endorsed the possibility of a pardon, then pointing to the case of Vice President Beloved Boudou, sentenced for the Ciccone Case. And in 2021, returning to the subject, he questioned the Supreme Court: “The behavior of the Supreme Court is worse than in the Macri government. During the Macri government, there was no court sentence as aberrant as Boudou’s, ”he expressed in an interview with El Destape.
“What you have to understand Cristina Kirchner, Amado Boudou and some other politicians who violated the criminal code is that their defense has to be exercised in court. Boudou is a citizen like everyone else. Politicians are equal before the law and before justice. That’s how it has to work,” answered Carrió.
And he added: “Cristina Kirchner looks at herself in the mirror of Carlos Menem”. “When Cristina looks at herself in that mirror, she knows that her fate is more complex, which is why she denounces an alleged persecution and talks about this theory of lawfare, which is a criminal law against popular leaders. She knows that sooner or later she is going to have a conviction, ”they supported from the deputy’s environment.
The ex-president Carlos Menem pardoned former commanders of the last dictatorship in his government and chiefs of guerrilla organizations, justly convicted of crimes against humanity. With the argument of achieving “pacification and national reconciliation”, the measure reached the military “carapintadas” who rose up against the government of Raúl Alfonsín in 1987 and 1988.
On October 7, 1989, Menem signed four decrees by which he pardoned 220 soldiers and 70 civilians, including General Leopoldo Galtieri, Admiral Jorge Isaac Anaya and Brigadier Basilio Lami Dozo. also the colonel Mohamed Ali Seineldin and lieutenant colonel Aldo Rico.
Menem had flirted politically with Seineldin before taking office. And Rico would later join the political fray in the province of Buenos Aires. And then a second round of pardons would come with which they were released Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Massera, Orlando Ramón Agosti, Roberto Viola and Armando Lambruschinimilitary leaders who were members of the boards and who had received harsh sentences for human rights violations in the historic 1985 trial.
by RN
