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Argentina ex-president, cabinet members indicted on corruption charges

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Former Argentine president Carlos Menem was indicted by the Federal Court on Tuesday on corruption charges. Menem is charged with overpaying government officials while he was in office from 1989 to 1999. Menem's well-known minister of economy, Domingo Cavallo, was indicted on similar charges. Cavallo is known for his economic reforms from 1991 to 1996, which decreased Argentina's inflation rate from 1,300 percent in 1990 to close to zero by the end of his term. Menem and Cavallo's reforms, which pegged Argentina's peso to the dollar, were abandoned in 2002 after the appreciation of the dollar caused large deficits and led to another economic recession. Ten other government officials were also indicted for corruption, including Menem's former justice minister Raul Granillo Ocampo and former environmental secretary Maria Julia Alsogaray. The court has frozen the politicians' assets totaling more than USD $171,000. This indictment is not the first to befall the former president. In October, an Argentine judge charged Menem with allegedly covering up evidence related to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Menem, born in Argentina to Syrian immigrants, is accused of covering up the alleged involvement of Syrian-Argentine businessman Alberto Kanoore Edul. The court also indicted Menem's brother Munir Menem, former intelligence chief Hugo Anzorregui, retired judge Juan Jose Galeano, former deputy secretary of intelligence Juan Carlos Anchezar, and former police commissioner Jorge Palacios. Argentine prosecutors have alleged that the bombing, which killed 85 and injured more than 200, was planned by Iranian officials and carried out by Hezbollah. Menem is currently a sitting senator representing the Rioja Province and is protected by judicial immunity. He cannot be arrested for the crimes listed in these indictments unless he is impeached by the legislature.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 23, 2009 (boomark / email).