Buenos Aires, (EFE).- An Argentine appeals court confirmed the indictment of former President Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) in a gender-based violence case filed by his former partner, Fabiola Yáñez, moving the former head of state closer to a criminal trial.
The ruling, issued Tuesday by the National Criminal and Correction Appeals Court, accuses Fernández of physically and psychologically abusing Yáñez from 2016 to August 2024 in a relationship marked by a “notorious power imbalance.”
Judges confirm abuse took place in context of power asymmetry
Judges Martín Irurzun and Eduardo Farah voted to uphold the original indictment from Feb. 17 by federal judge Julián Ercolini, while Judge Roberto Boico dissented.
According to the ruling, “in a context of gender-based violence (…) the accused would have taken advantage of the particular vulnerability that the complainant was immersed in.”
The court described Fernández’s conduct as including a “marked power imbalance, isolation, psychological abuse, and repeated physical aggression.”
Judge Irurzun emphasized that the incidents occurred in the context of “forced isolation” at the presidential residence, and Farah rejected the defense’s argument that the charges were vague, stating that the case had been “meticulously described” from the beginning of the relationship through to the formal complaint in 2024.
Legal team denies abuse, claims former president was victim
Fernández’s lawyer, Silvina Carreira, appealed the indictment arguing that the former president never exerted control over Yáñez and instead suffered mistreatment himself.
However, the court upheld the indictment on charges including minor and serious injuries, aggravated by the intimate relationship, abuse of power, and coercive threats.
The ruling also cited the symbolic authority Fernández held as a former president, stating that he was “not only the President of the Nation, but also a public actor with symbolic power,” which allegedly reinforced the asymmetry in the relationship.
The former president is now just one step away from facing an oral criminal trial. If found guilty, he could face between 3 and 18 years in prison.
This case marks the first time an Argentine head of state has been criminally indicted for gender-based violence.
The indictment outlines a pattern of verbal abuse, guilt-tripping, humiliation, threats, and physical assaults, which allegedly took place over several years. EFE
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