Ex Argentine vice president freed but still faces charges

Amado Boudou, former Vice President of Argentina. (Photo By Casa Rosada (Argentina Presidency of the Nation), CC BY-SA 2.0)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — An Argentine court has freed former Vice-President Amado Boudou from prison where he had been held since early November after being arrested on corruption charges.

Boudou, who served under former President Cristina Fernandez, is still under investigation for alleged money laundering and illicit association.

The court ruled Friday that Boudou, who also served as economy minister under Fernandez, was unlikely to interfere in the case against him, which was the original reason he was jailed pending trial. He denies any wrongdoing.

Boudou was one of several high-profile officials in Fernandez’s 2007-2015 administration detained on corruption charges.

In October, Julio De Vido, a lawmaker who was Fernandez’s planning minister, turned himself in to authorities after the lower house of Congress voted to remove his immunity from being detained. De Vido is being investigated on suspicion of having the government overpay more than $7 billion for liquefied gas. He’s also being probed for possible embezzlement in another case.

Fernandez herself was indicted in 2016. She won a Senate seat during the recent elections, which grants her immunity from arrest. She dismisses the allegations against her as politically motivated attacks by her successor, President Mauricio Macri.