Number of Suspects Behind Attack on Argentina's Vice President Reaches 4, Reports Say

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The number of people accused of an assassination attempt on Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner rose to four, the Argentine daily La Nacion reported.

On September 1, Argentine police detained a 35-year-old Buenos Aires resident, Fernando Andre Sabag Montiel, for attempting to assassinate Kirchner outside her home. The perpetrator pointed a handgun at Kirchner, but it did not go off. The vice president was not injured during the incident. Later police officers detained the attacker's girlfriend, Brenda Uliarte, who was allegedly present at the crime scene together with her partner.

On Friday, the court brought charges against Nicolas Gabriel Carrizo, a friend of the perpetrator, and Agustina Diaz, a friend of Uliarte, considering them as secondary accomplices of the assassination, according to La Nacion.

The prosecution believed that both Carrizo and Diaz helped Montiel and his girlfriend organize the assassination, though they were not at the crime scene, the newspaper said, adding that the investigation was still ongoing, as there could be more people involved in the attack.

The attacker himself could face between 15 and 30 years in prison, a lawyer told Sputnik, specifying that Montiel can ask for deportation to his homeland after serving half the term. If he goes back to Brazil, the Argentine authorities are likely to ban him from returning to Argentina for the rest of his life.

Kirchner, a former president, is a controversial figure in Argentine politics. In August, a federal prosecutor requested that she be jailed for 12 years and prohibited from holding public office indefinitely amid corruption allegations.

Kirchner is accused of abusing power during her presidency from 2007-2015, to steer public contracts to Lazaro Antonio Baez, a businessman and an alleged close friend, who owns a construction company.