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[Croatia apartments]

Former Argentinian president Carlos Menem, 76, has been charged for the second time for his involvement in the illegal sale of armaments to Croatia and Ecuador while he was president of the country in the beginning of the 1990’s. He has not been remanded because as a senator, he enjoys MP immunity, Argentinian media reported on Saturday.

Federal Judge Rafael Caputo ordered the freezing of Menem’s assets estimated at 112 million dollars, La Nacion and Clarin papers reported.

Menem, who is currently a senator, cannot be arrested as he enjoys MP’s immunity, but the judge did ban him from leaving the country.

In 2001 Menem was detained for five months for the same case, but the Supreme Court dismissed all charges against him, including that he had led an “illegal organisation” that traded with weapons. The court then concluded that there was insufficient evidence against him.

During the alleged sale of Argentinean weapons, Croatia was under an international arms embargo due to the war in the former Yugoslavia, Argentinean media report. Ecuador was also prohibited from purchasing weapons due to its border conflict with Peru.