The Federal Chamber of Rosario had already rejected the request, but last week, with the signatures of Mariano Borinsky, Juan Carlos Gemignani, and Javier Carbajo, the Federal Chamber of Cassation enabled judicial recess and urged the Rosario Chamber to issue a new resolution at the request of the defense. The Rosario judges Ricardo Moisés Vázquez, Elida Isabel Vidal, and Silvina María Andalaf Casiello upheld the rejection, maintaining that the trip had strictly vacation motives and that it was not proven that it could not be rescheduled. Buenos Aires, January 15 (NA) – The Federal Chamber of Cassation put an end to the maneuver of Rosario Federal Judge Gastón Salmáin, who sought to leave the country for Europe on vacation despite being prosecuted with a preventive measure that is not enforced because he enjoys parliamentary immunity. Salmáin is being investigated for having signed a ruling in favor of a company to access dollars at the official exchange rate in a context of exchange restrictions, at the end of Alberto Fernández's government, and for having requested a bribe of 200,000 dollars in return. After the change of government, the amount allocated to the judge was reduced to about 19,000 dollars, a situation that led to a conflict and a subsequent complaint. Judge Carlos Vera Barros prosecuted Salmáin for failure to fulfill the duties of a public official, malfeasance, and aggravated passive bribery, with a preventive prison measure that was not carried out due to his parliamentary immunity. In his vote, Judge Carbajo stated that the appeal did not adequately rebut the arguments of the original court, a criterion shared by Guillermo Yacobucci and Ángela Ledesma. Salmáin's prosecution was issued in late December within the framework of an investigation into alleged illegal maneuvers to favor a trust with the exit of 10 million dollars abroad during the period of exchange restrictions. The case has already reached the Accusation Commission of the Council of the Magistracy, which must define his future as a magistrate. The fiscal accusation indicated that the judge had agreed with financier Fernando Elías Whpei and notary Santiago Busaniche to manipulate a judicial file in exchange for an economic benefit based on the exchange rate gap. According to the whistleblower statement of Whpei, Salmáin requested a bribe of 200,000 dollars to issue the ruling that benefited Atila Fideicomiso SRL. They also warned that there were no urgent and unavoidable reasons to authorize the requested permit and pointed out that the measure did not violate arrest immunity. The defense immediately appealed, but the Federal Chamber of Cassation, with a new composition, declared the presentation inadmissible. The involved businessman confessed as a whistleblower and the prosecutors confirmed his version through telephone interceptions and the progress of the case, as reported by the Argentine News Agency. The magistrate intended to travel to Europe between December 2025 and January 2026.
