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Argentine former president sentenced to 7 years for arms smuggling

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 14, 2013 6:52AM GMT

Argentina’s former president Carlos Menem is sentenced to seven years in jail on charges of violating international embargoes and illegally smuggling weapons to Ecuador and Croatia during his tenure.

A court on Thursday handed down the sentence to the 82-year-old, who is currently serving as a senator.

The court also forbade Menem from holding elective office for 14 years and requested the Senate to vote to eliminate the immunity he enjoys as a legislator.

Due to the immunity, Menem must first go through an impeachment process by his fellow lawmakers. According to legal observers, Menem could be imprisoned after his term ends in 2017, in case the legislators do not succeed in ousting him from the Senate.

Meanwhile, the judges said the Senate should not take any action against Menem until the sentence is final. It means the ex-president could remain free while the Supreme Court studies any appeal.

Menem's then-defense minister, Oscar Camilion, and 10 others also received sentences of four to five years.

An appellate court in March found Menem guilty and overturned his acquittal at trial in 2011. The higher court said the weapons could not have been smuggled without Menem's direct participation and approval.

Menem, who ruled from 1989 to1999, admitted to signing secret decrees to export weapons to Venezuela and Panama. However, he said he did not know that the weapons and ammunition manufactured in his country went to Ecuador and Croatia. The two countries were subject to international embargoes at the time.

The appeals court rejected his defense as “incomprehensible,” since evidence shows that customs procedures were not followed due to pressure from the presidency.

Menem was determined to be a “co-author of the crime of smuggling, aggravated by the fact that it involved military weapons and required the intervention of public officials,” the appellate court said.

The weapons were dispatched to Croatia in seven shipments aboard freighters between 1991 and 1995. More weapons were sent to Ecuador aboard three flights in February 1995.

MR/HMV