Wednesday, Nov 21, 2012
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - The widow of a late Argentine provincial governor was sentenced to 18 years prison for the New Year's Day murder of her husband, a court ruled Tuesday.
Carlos Soria, 61, governor of Argentina's Rio Negro province and the country's former spy chief, was shot in the left eye with .38 caliber pistol during an argument with his wife, prosecutors said.
Soria, an ally of President Cristina Kirchner, was just weeks into his job in the key oil-producing southern province of Rio Negro when he was shot.
A panel of judges ruled that Soria's widow Susana Freydoz, 61, was guilty of first degree murder, but did not give prosecutors life in prison sentence they were seeking.
The verdict, read on television, stated that there were "extraordinary attenuating circumstances" - namely, that Freydoz is undergoing psychiatric treatment.
The judges ruled that Freydoz can serve her time in the mental health wing of hospital where she is currently being treated under police guard.
Soria was shot in the pre-dawn hours of January 1 after a New Year's Eve meal with their children and grandchildren at their estate in the town of General Roca, located 1,350 kilometers (840 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires.
Soria was a member of the ruling Peronist party and a former head of the Argentine intelligence services, under ex-president Eduardo Duhalde in 2002.
He is survived by four children: Martin, the mayor of General Roca; German; Carlos; and Emilia.
