Two prosecutors are seeking to send Fernando Sabag Montiel to trial in two cases: the attempted assassination of Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and a second case involving child pornography possession.

Sabag Montiel, 35, was arrested immediately after his attempt on CFK’s life on September 1, 2022, on charges of attempted murder. Prosecutors then found child pornography on his phone, sparking a second case against him. 

Prosecutor Daniela Dupuy, head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Unit for Computer Crimes in Buenos Aires City, has now asked the capital’s Court 4 authorities to initiate a trial for the crime of possession and distribution of child pornography, punishable by up to four years in prison. 

Carlos Rívolo, the federal prosecutor investigating the CFK assassination bid, has started the paperwork to do the same for that case, in which Sabag Montiel faces life in prison. 

“On September 2, 17 images and 102 videos containing child exploitation material were found,” Dupuy told the Herald. “They showed very young children, most of them below 13 years old.” 

As the investigation against him developed in Criminal Court 5, led by Judge Eugenia Cappuchetti, Rívolo requested that he be investigated for child pornography offenses.

On the night of September 1, 2022, as Cristina Fernández de Kirchner greeted followers outside her Recoleta flat, Sabag Montiel pointed a gun at her forehead and attempted to shoot. The gun did not fire. Investigations found that, although the gun was loaded, it did not have a bullet in the firing chamber. 

“When I pulled the trigger, the shot didn’t come out,” Sabag Montiel told C5N in March.  “There were so many people, I was nervous.” He chose not to give a statement during the first phase of his investigation.

Sabag Montiel’s partner Brenda Uliarte and Nicolás Carrizo, suspected of helping plan the assassination attempt, are also in detention and being investigated in the federal case. Uliarte is accused of co-perpetration of the attempted homicide. Carrizo was allegedly the attacker’s employer in his job selling cotton candy on the streets of the capital, leading the group to be dubbed the “cotton candy gang”.

In February, three judges confirmed charges of incitement to collective violence against four members of far-right group Revolución Federal (Federal Revolution) in a case relating to the assassination attempt. However, they rejected CFK’s lawyers’ request to charge them with criminal association, on the grounds that the hate speech and events organized by the group were not directly related to the attempt to kill the Vice President.

The headline of this story has been modified to clarify that the prosecutor has requested the case go to trial. The request has yet to be approved.