Argentina's senate has authorised investigators to search three homes belonging to former president Cristina Kirchner as part of the so-called corruption notebooks case.
Claudio Bonadio, the judge leading the investigation in the multi-million dollar bribery case, had petitioned the Senate to partially lift Kirchner's immunity to allow the residences to be searched. As a senator, Kirchner enjoys congressional immunity from imprisonment, though not prosecution.
But all 67 senators present -- including Kirchner herself -- yesterday approved the partial lifting of that immunity to allow the searches as Bonadio seeks evidence the leftist former president accepted millions of dollars in bribes from businessmen in exchange for public works contracts.
In a fiery and defiant speech to the chamber, the 65-year-old reiterated that the cases against her were politically motivated. "If there was something missing to consecrate the political persecution going on in Argentina, it was this... I am going to be the first elected senator to be searched."
Thousands of people demonstrated outside the Congress building in Buenos Aires the previous night, demanding that Senators authorise the searches. "Prison for Cristina!" protesters shouted, and also "Give back the money!"
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