Formal impeachment charges against supreme court justice Eduardo Moliné O'Connor may be heard as early as mid-August, according to sources close to the lower chamber's impeachment committee -which last week added four new accusations to the 10 previously filed against Moliné.
The original charge sheet was identical to that prepared against former supreme court president Julio Nazareno, who resigned before the impeachment proceedings proper could get under way.
Unlike Nazareno, Moliné has decided to fight. He has already submitted a 200-page rebuttal of the original charges, and is expected to do likewise with the new batch.
Moliné, well-known as a leader of the local tennis association, was appointed to the supreme court by President Carlos Menem, a tennis enthusiast, in 1990 -despite the fact that he had had no previous experience on the bench.
'Automatic majority'. Together with Nazareno and three other justices -Antonio Boggiano, Adolfo Vázquez and Guillermo López- he made up what was known as the 'automatic majority' Menem enjoyed in the supreme court; his government's last line of defence against charges of corruption and unfavourable lower-court decisions.
The headline charge against Moliné (and the others) involves the so-called Meller case, in which the 'automatic majority' affirmed the validity of a contract that had been nullified by two official spending watchdogs and ordered the state to pay the equivalent of US$137m -almost five times the original value of the contract.
Next steps. Once the charges are put before the full chamber of deputies, the next step is a vote on whether to submit a formal accusation, which requires a two-thirds' majority to pass. In the current political environment, this is likely to be achieved.
The accusation must then be presented to the senate, which sits as judge.
Once the outcome of the Moliné impeachment is known, the strategy for dealing with the rest of the 'automatic majority' will be drawn up.
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