Supreme Court Argentina maintains prison sentence of six years for former President Cristina Kirchner

The Supreme Court of Argentina maintained a conviction on Tuesday that the former President Cristina Fernández, who was two periods of president, sentenced to six years in prison for corruption. The ruling of the Court means that Kirchner, the leading figure of the opposition movement in the South American country, is known as Peronism, is excluded from holding a public office. A lower court will decide whether Kirchner can be placed under house arrest due to her age.

Kirchner (72), who was president from 2007 to 2015, was convicted by a court in 2022 for a fraud case in which public road construction projects in Patagonia were passed on to a close ally during her presidency. Kirchner has always denied the allegations and says he is the victim of political persecution.

The verdict is a blow to Kirchner because it will not be able to participate in the interim elections later this year, as she had previously announced. The extreme right -wing president of Argentina, Javier Milei, celebrated the pronunciation with a message on X: « Justice. »

‘Marionettes’

When the statement was announced, supporters of Kirchner and her political movement blocked important access roads to Buenos Aires. The former president then quickly condemned the decision and called the judges « puppets of those who rule above them, » she told her supporters outside the head office of her party in Buenos Aires. « It is not the opposition. It is the concentrated economic power of the Argentinian state. »

The lawsuit, which started in 2016, revolved around 51 government contracts for road construction during the presidential deadlines of Cristina Kirchner and her now deceased husband, former President Néstor Kirchner. The contracts were awarded to companies linked to Lázaro Báez, a convicted building magnate and friend of the presidential couple, at prizes that were twenty percent above the usual rate.

According to the court, the government carried out « an extraordinary fraudulent operation », which damaged the interests of the state and led to the eclipse of converted more than 60 million euros.

To share

Mail the editors