Argentina
Charges against ex-President Macri
Mauricio Macri (left), ex-President of Argentina. Photo: Alejandro Santa Cruz / telam / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
He was President of Argentina from 2015 to 2019. Now Mauricio Macri has to answer in court. The charge: illegally spying on relatives of soldiers who had died in an accident.
The former Argentine head of state Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) has been charged with illegal spying in connection with the submarine ARA San Juan, which sank in 2017.
The federal judge Martín Bava ordered no pre-trial detention for Macri, but an embargo of 100 million pesos, the equivalent of around 900,000 euros, on the entrepreneur’s assets. In addition, Macri, who was visiting Chile, was not allowed to leave Argentina after his return.
The former president is accused of being responsible for illegally spying on relatives of soldiers who have had an accident. The submarine “ARA San Juan” disappeared in November 2017 with 44 seamen on board on the voyage from Ushuaia in the extreme south of Argentina to Mar del Plata on the Atlantic coast. A year later, the wreck of the German-made submarine was located around 500 kilometers east of the Gulf of San Jorge off the Patagonian coast at a depth of 907 meters.
After the “ARA San Juan” disappeared, the relatives of the sailors repeatedly organized demonstrations and demanded that the accident be fully investigated. During this time, the Argentine secret service AFI is said to have tapped the phones of family members of the missing soldiers, monitored the activities on social networks and photographed protesters. Judge Bava found Macri responsible for this illegal secret service operation.