The former president learned of the decision in her Senate office, for which it was also announced that she will not be able to hold any type of public office.
Cristina Kirchner was sentenced to 6 years in prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office for defrauding the State in the Highway case.
A court handed down the judgment on Tuesday in the trial in which the Argentine vice president is accused of having led a criminal organization that directed public works to a businessman close to him during his presidency, which led to a 6-year prison sentence.
The former president learned of the decision in her Senate office, from where she was preparing to respond to the verdict through a public message.
Prosecutor Diego Luciani, who had requested a twelve-year sentence for her, also heard the result of the process from his office.
The Prosecutor’s Office considered that the damage to the state was 5,231 million pesos and also requested that the defendants’ assets be seized for that amount divided among the defendants.
He also claimed the confiscation of Báez’s companies and 12 farms bought by him and his children.
The headquarters of the federal courts in Buenos Aires had woken up surrounded by a strong fence and police officers to prevent possible excesses by supporters of the former president (2007-2015).
Kirchner was accused of being the head of an “illicit association” and of fraudulent administration -defrauding the State- for some 1,000 million dollars.
The court also announced its verdict for 12 other defendants, among them the businessman Lázaro Báez, accused of having benefited from 51 works financed with public funds, and the former Federal Planning Minister Julio de Vido.
This is the first trial of Fernández de Kirchner and the first sentencing request he has faced.
Other judicial investigations have been closed and several for different crimes are still open.
Impact
A prison sentence for the Peronist leader would have a strong impact, since it is the first time that an Argentine vice president would be sentenced while in office and because he is the most relevant political figure of the last 20 years.
However, it will not lead to his immediate arrest because he can appeal the sentence before different instances until reaching the Supreme Court – which will have the last word – in a process that can last several years.
Prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola argued that Báez’s company was a structure created to extract funds from the State through the irregular allocation of public works and that when Fernández de Kirchner’s term ended, it disappeared.
They also claimed that several highway projects registered cost overruns and many were never completed.
They pointed out that this corruption scheme, “the largest ever known in the country”, was also in force during the presidency of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), husband and predecessor of the vice president and who died three years following leaving power.
Fernández de Kirchner denied the accusations and accused the court of having the written sentence from the beginning of the trial and of acting like a “firing squad.”
The former president affirms that the accusations have no legal basis and maintains that “decisions on public investment are the exclusive spring of political bodies and there is no legal norm that sets limits on how its distribution should be carried out.”
It also states that none of the works investigated were unproductive or unnecessary.
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