14/09/2011 10:29
Former Argentine President acquitted of arms smuggling
Former Argentine President Carlos Menem and 17 members of his government were acquitted Tuesday of charges that they violated international weapons embargoes on Ecuador and Croatia in the 1990s, The Associated Press reported.
Menem, still a sitting senator at 81, had faced up to eight years in prison if convicted, but two of the three judges on his panel found him not guilty.
Menem denied trafficking in weapons during his 1989-1999 rule. He acknowledged signing three secret decrees between 1991 and 1995 to export weapons to Venezuela and Panama, but said he had no idea that tons of rifles and ammunition made in Argentina would end up in Ecuador and Croatia, countries subject to international embargoes at the time.