Politics Events Local 2025-11-13T23:39:37+00:00

Argentina's 'Notebooks of Coimas' Trial Proceedings

Argentina's Federal Tribunal is overwhelmed by a surge of new cases in the 'Notebooks of Coimas' bribery probe. Judges requested a symbolic courtroom, but their plea was denied.


Argentina's 'Notebooks of Coimas' Trial Proceedings

Members of the Tribunal have requested to hold the hearings in the same courtroom where the Military Juntas were convicted during Raúl Alfonsín's government, a powerful symbol. This situation is the result of public pressure for the trial to proceed with celerity. In parallel, and despite having agreed to increase hearings to two days a week, the TOF 7 reported that it was "overwhelmed". According to their statement, in the last 90 days, "29 new files" were received, which contributed to the operational collapse of the Tribunal. Therefore, it requested the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation to be excluded from the lottery to handle statements in new cases. The trial in the "Notebooks of Coimas" case will have two hearings per week, as specified by the Federal Oral Court No. 7 (TOF 7). In addition to Thursday's hearing, Tuesday will be added. However, this request was rejected, and it will have to continue with its usual tasks. The interrogations will be held in the ground-floor courtroom of the Palace of Justice (Talcahuano 550), where the accused, their defense, the judges, the prosecution, the plaintiffs, the other parties, and the public will be present. As the system is bimodal, the other participants will be connected via video call through the Zoom digital platform. There are 86 accused in this case, mostly businessmen accused of paying bribes (a situation captioned as "active bribery") and around a hundred lawyer representatives.