World2 min(s) read
Published 12:06 06 Jan 2022 GMT
A judge in Argentina has allegedly kissed a convicted murderer after pushing for him to get a reduced sentence.
Judicial authorities have opened an investigation into Mariel Suarez after prison CCTV caught her and Cristian 'Mai' Bustos romantically entwined.
Bustos is serving time at the Provincial Penitentiary Institute of Trelew for shooting policeman Leandro Roberts in 2009, the Buenos Aires Times reports.
Suarez maintains that there was no hanky panky between herself and the "highly dangerous" criminal, who she claims to be writing a book about.
The incident took place on December 29, just a week after the trial where Bustos was sentenced to life imprisonment. Despite him reportedly admitting to pulling the trigger for the shot that killed Roberts, Suarez broke ranks with her two fellow magistrates to request a lesser penalty for Bustos.
She was eventually overruled by Judges María Laura Martini and Ximena Miranda Nastovich, who backed a life sentence behind bars.
But just days into Bustos' sentence, the judge paid him a visit - during which an officer on duty reported the pair for getting a little too cozy.
In leaked CCTV footage, they can be seen with their faces close together, repeatedly leaning in for what looks like a secret kiss.
The officer on duty told his superiors what he had seen. Chubut's Superior Court of Justice confirmed that an investigation into Suarez has been opened in a statement:
"A meeting requested by a criminal judge of the district of Comodoro Rivadavia and an inmate housed in the said penitentiary center, considered highly dangerous and recently condemned in the framework of an oral and public trial held in the city of Esquel, came to light," read the statement.
"From the information communicated by the IPP, it appears that the judge has engaged in inappropriate conduct for a magistrate," it added.
Suarez maintains her innocence, telling the TN news channel that "I have no sentimental relationship with this person, I have no personal ties. I am making a book with this person because of his story and it is the first one I am going to write."
The magistrate also claimed that their meeting was entirely coincidental.
“It was the first time I had seen him and we had talked about it [the sentencing]. I bumped into him, told him I was going to arrange an interview with him, and told him I was going to write a book. He told me personal things and showed me his tattoos," she said.
