Two Argentine senators surrender immunity over bribes

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -- Two Argentine opposition senators Friday surrendered immunity from prosecution in a bribe-for-votes scandal, and three other senators from the opposition and the ruling Alliance quit their seats.

Opposition Peronist senators Eduardo Bauza and Angel Pardo announced they would voluntarily forfeit their congressional immunity from prosecution, as Judge Carlos Liporaci formally asked the Senate to strip eight lawmakers of this protection from criminal charges.

Peronist senators Jorge Yoma and Eduardo Menem both said the scandal had so damaged the reputation of the 69-member Senate that they were resigning their seats. Their private offices confirmed their resignations to Reuters.

Local news agencies also reported that a senior senator from the governing Alliance had also quit his seat, but it was not possible to confirm the report.

None of the three senators said to have quit had been named by Liporaci as possible suspects.

The scandal, which began with anonymous charges that Peronist senators took cash from government officials to approve key labor market reforms in April, has shaken both the opposition and the center-left Alliance government.

President Fernando de la Rua, who took power last December vowing to clean up the corruption that flourished in 10 years' rule by Peronist President Carlos Menem, has already had to declare public support for his secret service chief and his labor minister who deny paying the alleged bribes.

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