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ARGENTINA | 28-02-2019 17:03

Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli faces disciplinary case over extortion scandal

High-profile prosecutor Carlos Stornelli is embroiled in a damaging scandal involving the illegal espionage and extortion carried out by a former associate allegedly in his name.

Argentina's interim Attorney General Eduardo Casal has opened a disciplinary investigation into Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli.

Stornelli was summoned Thursday to appear before Casal to answer to allegations he was involved in extortion and bribery carried out in his name by lawyer Marcelo D'Alessio

Casal's decision comes after Federal Judge for Dolores in Buenos Aires province, Alejo Ramos Padilla, summoned Stornelli to testify in an investigation into D'Alessio's activities.

The Attorney General sent a letter to Ramos Padilla last week to insist that "it was imperious that the magistrate (Stornelli) comply with the order dated February 13" to appear in the Dolores courthouse, according to the Tiempo Argentino daily.

But Stornelli is not planning to visit Dolores on March 7, the date of his summons, unless the issue of the case's jurisdiction is resolved, the same newspaper added.

The case has been blocked by Judge Julián Ercoloni who has requested it be take from Ramos Padilla's jurisdiction.

A POLITICAL STORM

The scandal has prompted a political storm in Argentina given the significance and implications of the cases Stornelli investigates as a federal prosecutor.

On Wednesday, former president-cum-Senator Fernández de Kirchner mocked the Judiciary for the apparent scandals it finds itself engulfed in.

The country's Judiciary "has done with my cases what they haven't done with anyone else's", Fernández de Kirchner said Wednesday. "And what's up with those people who are filming, recording, photographing, WhatsApping and asking for bribes in beach shacks", she added, referring to revealing images of D'Alessio and Stornelli in Pinamar, on Argentina's coast, and the WhatsApp screenshots which have, at the very least, tarnished Stornelli's image.

Fernández de Kirchner herself is engulfed in several of her own scandals, some of which are being pursued in the pre-trail stage by prosecutor Stornelli.

-TIMES/PERFIL

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