Thu 08 September 2022:
The alleged attacker accused of attempting to shoot Argentine Vice President Cristina Kirchner at point-blank range last week, Fernando Sabag Montiel, apparently plotted the crime with his girlfriend. Kirchner is the current vice president and former president.
The alarming new development in the inquiry occurred when a judge issued preliminary charges, according to local media on Wednesday (September 7).
According to the Telam news agency, in an indictment, Judge Maria Eugenia Capuchetti stated that the alleged gunman and his girlfriend, Brenda Uliarte, are both in custody.
They are accused of trying to assassinate Kirchner “with planning and prior agreement.”
The assassination attempt had happened when Kirchner was mingled with supporters outside her home last Thursday night. The 69-year-old survived the horrible attack when a gun brandished by Sabag Montiel failed to fire.
Immediately after the attack, he was taken into custody and a video of the incident went viral on social media platforms.
Gun jams
Video circulating on social media shows the gun emerging from the crowd as Ms Fernández de Kirchner approaches. She initially appears confused by what is going on, ducking down to retrieve an object dropped on the floor.
In another video, people in the crowd appear to try to block Ms Fernández de Kirchner from the suspected gunman, who came within inches of her.
President Alberto Fernández revealed the gun was loaded with five bullets, but failed to fire when triggered.
Pictures of him taken from his social media posts and published on Argentine newspaper websites depicted him with tattoos associated with neo-Nazi groups.
After searching his apartment, police seized two boxes containing 100 bullets, according to investigators quoted by La Nación newspaper.
Here is all we know about Sabag Montiel’s girlfriend.
Sabag Montiel has not stated why he committed the assault. Brazilian by birth, the 35-year-old has spent his whole life in Argentina.
In the meantime, his 23-year-old girlfriend was taken into custody Sunday night in a train station in Buenos Aires.
She claimed to have not seen Sabag Montiel for two days in a televised interview after the incident.
However, analysis of video security footage later revealed that they were both present at the location of the incident that evening, according to judicial authorities reported by the local media.
Kirchner is accused of defrauding the state and of fraudulently awarding public works contracts in her stronghold in Patagonia while she was president between 2007 and 2015.
If convicted at trial, prosecutors have asked that the ex-president face 12 years in prison and a lifetime ban from politics.
However, Ms Fernández de Kirchner is the Senate president and so enjoys parliamentary immunity. She would not be imprisoned unless her sentence was ratified by the country’s Supreme Court, or she loses her Senate seat at the next elections at the end of 2023.
Ms Fernández de Kirchner has faced numerous other corruption trials following her time as president. The verdict of this trial is expected to take some months.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
