Instead of answering questions about allegations of domestic abuse against his ex-partner, former Argentine President Alberto Fernández filed a 222-page statement decrying persecution on Tuesday. He also took to social media with a lengthy post that opened with: “I never exercised physical, psychological or economic violence against Fabiola Yañez.”

“The media system and state-operated social media launched a smear campaign intending to cancel me publicly and silence me politically,” Fernández wrote, accusing the judge and the prosecutor of the case, Julián Ercolini, and Ramiro González of persecuting him.

In November, González said the prosecutor’s office he leads proved that Fernández hit Yáñez in the eye, caused a bruise on her arm, and inflicted “grave psychological harm” on her. Fernández also threatened Yáñez, saying he would rescind child support and go public with personal details if she filed a criminal complaint against him.

Allegations that Fernández had been abusive to Yañez first surfaced through press reports at the beginning of August. Yañez reported Fernández for gender-based violence days later. Photos of Yánez’s bruised face were subsequently leaked and published by the press on August 8, causing nationwide uproar. Fernández was formally indicted for aggravated bodily harm and violent threats on August 11. If found guilty, he could go to jail for 18 years.

Now, the judge has 10 days to decide Fernández’s legal situation. He could charge him with the accusations prosecutor González made against him, dismiss them, or ask for further evidence. A source close to the investigation said that everything is on the table and that the judge has enough elements to make a conclusive decision.

Fernández insisted Ercolini recuse himself, saying he had criticized the judge multiple times during his presidential administration and that they have a public enmity that should bar him from participating in the case.

The former president attempted to cast doubt over Yañez’s specific accusations. For example, he pointed to some alleged contradictions in the dates on which she claimed to have been beaten. He also insisted that Yañez’s bruised eye could have been caused by treatments her beautician, Florencia Aguirre, applied on his former partner’s face the day before the apparition of the wound. He pointed out that Aguirre is currently being investigated in a “criminal case for illegally practicing medicine.” 

The head of the presidential medical unit, Walter Federico Saavedra, treated Yañez in June 2021. In Fernández’s account, Saavedra told him that Yañez’s bruised eye could have been caused by an “erroneous injection” and laughingly commented that the former first lady did “like to tell about the beauty treatments she has done on her face.” However, Saavedra testified in the case last year and said no such thing. A source close to the investigation told the Herald that if Fernández’s allegations are true, Saavedra could be accused of false testimony.

Fernández also claimed the picture of the bruise was “possibly forged.”

The former president also insisted on the idea that Yañez had a drinking problem and that she got her arm bruised while being inebriated. He also accused her of having an affair.

Fernández also demanded the judge call new witnesses, including his eldest child, former cabinet members, several security officers, staff from the presidential residence, and five of Yañez’s psychologists and psychiatrists, among others.

“Why did not he bring them in five months ago?” a source close to the matter told the Herald, theorizing that Fernández’s strategy is that of a man “at the gates of an uncomfortable judicial situation.”