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Offices and homes raided by police as part of probe into one of country's best-known human rights groups
BOGOTA (TrustLaw) - Argentine police have raided more than 20 offices and homes as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged money laundering and fraud involving the country’s most prominent human rights group, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Foundation, according to MercoPress.
The rights group, set up in the 1970’s by mothers seeking justice for their sons and family relatives killed during Argentina’s military dictatorship, has been embroiled in a corruption scandal that has tarnished the reputation of the high-profile organisation and Argentina’s President, Cristina Fernandez, who has been a close supporter of the group and has helped fund its social programmes.
The scandal centres on Sergio Schoklender, who was the financial manager of the rights groups and key adviser to its president and founding member, Hebe de Bonafini.
He and others involved with the rights groups are under investigation by Argentine authorities for illegally amassing wealth and for the alleged misuse of millions of dollars of government funds given to the rights group, meant to build affordable housing for the poor. The case arose a year ago following accusations made by two opposition lawmakers, MercoPress said.
“With the raids, we were successful in discovering several of the financial caves where Sergio Schoklender, used to cash and exchange checks. All this evidence will be submitted to experts”, MercoPress cites magistrate Norberto Oyarbide, who is in charge of the case, as saying in a Sunday interview with the Buenos Aires daily Tiempo Argentino.
The corruption scandal has raised questions about the lack of transparency and control in the spending of government funds.
Over the decades, wearing their trademark white headscarves, the activists have gathered every week in the Plaza de Mayo, the square in front of the seat of government in Buenos Aires, to campaign that those responsible for human rights violations during the military dictatorship be brought to justice.
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