Argentina: Cristina Fernandez sentenced to 6 years in prison in corruption case

Vice President of Argentina Christina Fernandez, was sentenced on Tuesday to 6 years in prison in the case of violations in the roadworks concession under the Kirchner government (2003-2015).

In sentencing in a trial that began in May 2019, the Federal Oral Court 2 also sentenced the former president to indefinite disqualification from holding public office.

However, despite the verdict, the journalist Patricia Janiot He pointed out that it would take years to know the judicial future of Argentina’s current vice president, as the decision would have to be ratified by two higher authorities and the immunity that Fernandez enjoys in his current post.

“Despite the verdict, it will be years before the judicial fate of the former president of Argentina becomes known. The decision must be ratified by two higher authorities. In addition, as Vice President [Cristina Fernández de Kirchner] has immunity, ”the journalist wrote in her networks.

Christina vs. Justice: “Judicial Mafia”

Upon learning of the verdict handed down on her, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner spoke from the Argentine Nation’s Senate, where she criticized judicial arguments in which “the verdict was written” three years ago when the trial began.

“This is not a condemnation under the laws of the National Constitution and administrative laws, but rather, it originates in a system that I very naively called legality on December 2, 2019. I also talked about the idea of ​​the judicial side. to youthful deformation, reader, analyze. But it is much simpler: it is not a party. This is a parallel state and mafia, judicial mafia”, he expressed.

the court’s decision

Judges found guilty Cristina Fernandez crimes of fraudulent management of public funds, but she was acquitted on charges of alleged unlawful association.

The penalty for Fernandez in the so-called “Cause Road” This is less than the 12 years in prison that the prosecutor’s office requested last August in the closing arguments of this process.

The Oral Court also ruled to confiscate the consequences of the crime, which consist of the amount 84,835 million pesos ($482 million).

The 69-year-old ex-president, who enjoys immunity in principle until December 2023 due to her position in the executive branch, has the right to appeal the verdict to higher courts.

Other defendants

This process identified irregularities in the transfer of 51 public works to the firms of businessman Lázaro Báez during the administration of the late Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and Cristina Fernández (2007-2015) in the southern province of Santa Cruz. political cradle of Kirchnerism.

In addition to sentencing Cristina Fernandez, the court also sentenced Lazaro Baez, former Minister of Public Works José López and former head of the National Highway Authority Nelson Periotti to 6 years in prison.

He also sentenced the former heads of the National Road Administration in Santa Cruz, Mauricio Collareda and Raul Daruich, former presidents of the Provincial Road Administration in Santa Cruz, Raul Pavesi and José Raul Santibanez and Juan Carlos Villafañe, to various sentences ranging from 3.5 to 5 years, former mayor of the southern city of Rio Gallegos and former president of Vialidad de Santa Cruz.

On the other hand, the court acquitted Julio De Vido, Argentina’s minister of federal planning from 2003 to 2015; Abel Fatala, former Deputy Minister of Public Works of Argentina, and Hector Garro, former President of the Provincial Road Agency in Santa Cruz.

Cristina Fernandez case

When Carlos Kirchnerformer president’s cousin Nestor Kirchner and a former Undersecretary for the Coordination of Federal Public Works, the judges acquitted him of the offense of unlawful association and ordered his dismissal for breach of duty as a public official, given that the offense was provided for.

The vice president, who in recent years has bypassed requests for preventive detention issued against her in various cases, in many of which she was fired, thanks to the privileges that protect her, has always defended her innocence and claimed to be a target. legal and political persecution.

In the latest phase of the trial, the attack on Cristina Fernandez on September 1, when a man tried to shoot her at the door of her home in Buenos Aires, while a group of supporters were showing their support for the Vice President in Buenos Aires, was rocked. Trial.

(As reported by EFE)