Argentine Ex-President
Charged With Arms
Trafficking
Buenos Aires - Former
Argentine President
Carlos Menem was charged
with weapons smuggling
in a trial he attended
via videoconference on
Friday due to health
problems.
Menem, 78, was allowed
to attend the trial on
live video in his
hometown in La Rioja
province due to "anemia
and stress."
He is charged with
having signed
presidential decrees
authorizing weapons
sales to Venezuela and
Panama, knowing those
arms would end up in
Ecuador and Croatia.
Argentina was barred
from supplying Ecuador
with weapons after a
brief war between
Ecuador and Peru in
1995, while arms embargo
to Croatia was
internationally observed
during the wars in the
former Yugoslavia from
1991 to 1995.
Apart from Menem, former
Defense Minister Oscar
Camilion, Menem's former
brother-in-law Emir Yoma
and former chief of the
Air Forces Brigadier
Juan Paulik, are also
being tried for the same
crime.
Menem's lawyer
Maximiliano Rusconi
denied the charges,
saying that the decrees
Menem signed were of
legal exports to Panama
and Venezuela. Even if
the weapons ended up in
Ecuador and Croatia,
that was because "the
presidential decree was
not followed," Rusconi
said.
"What was ordered by the
former President Menem
was totally contrary to
what happened, and the
customs and military are
the ones that are
supposed to give
explanations to the
event," said the lawyer.
Meanwhile, many former
army officers who are
accused of the same
crime said that Menem
should be responsible,
because by themselves
they couldn't have been
able to do such a big
maneuver which included
seven maritime and three
aerial transportation
from1991 to 1995.
The weapons that arrived
in Ecuador and Croatia
included anti-tank
missiles, hand grenades,
land mines and rockets,
prosecutors said.
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