Argentine investigators search ex-president's homes

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Police searched the homes of Argentina's former president Cristina Kirchner on Thursday as the investigation intensified into the so-called "notebooks" corruption scandal.

The move came one day after judge Claudio Bonadio, who is leading the investigation into the multi-million-dollar bribery case, successfully petitioned the Senate to partially lift Kirchner's congressional immunity to accommodate the searches.

Police are hunting for evidence that the leftist former leader (2007-2015) presided over a kickbacks scheme in which she and others in her administration accepted millions of dollars from businessmen in exchange for public works contracts.

As a senator, Kirchner enjoys congressional immunity from imprisonment, but not from prosecution.

Protesters wait the arrival of former Argentine president Cristina Kirchner to Comodoro Py Courthouse for a hearing related to "Los Sauces" commercial company in Buenos Aires, March 7, 2017. /VCG Photo

Around 20 police officers entered Kirchner's residence in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires just after midday (1500 GMT) as police vans and fire trucks surrounded the building.

Later in the afternoon, another search warrant was executed at Kirchner's country getaway in Rio Gallegos in the southern Patagonia region.

Local media said the search of Kirchner's third home in El Calafate, also in Patagonia, had not yet begun.

Kirchner's lawyer, Carlos Beraldi, was left fuming after he was ejected from the fifth floor Buenos Aires apartment on Bonadio's orders during the search.

"This is a farce! It's a clear violation of the rule of law," said Beraldi.

Argentinian former President Cristina Kirchner arrives for a hearing in court for alleged fraud in the concession of public works during her term in Buenos Aires, October 31, 2016. /VCG Photo

On Wednesday, Kirchner had denounced in a fiery speech to the Senate what she called "political persecution" but the 65-year-old, like all the other 66 senators present, approved the petition.

She had told lawmakers in a letter that she was willing to allow the searches of her three homes on condition that investigators did not allow any filming or photography, though she complained that she was "going to be the first elected senator to be searched."

More than a dozen elite businessmen and former government officials were arrested after La Nacion newspaper reported on August 1 that millions in bribes were delivered by a ministerial chauffeur to Kirchner's residences, during both her presidency and that of her late husband Nestor.

The driver's meticulous records of the alleged cash deliveries, the "notebooks", form the basis of Bonadio's investigation.

The Kirchner residence in Buenos Aires was the venue for the handover of millions of dollars in cash, according to driver Oscar Centeno.

(Cover: Former Argentina president Cristina Kirchner leaves a federal court in Buenos Aires, August 13, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AFP