The vice president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, was sentenced to six years in prison on Tuesday, Dec. 6, on charges of illicit association and fraud against the state.
Kirchner will not be arrested despite her conviction because she has a privileged status. The lawsuit against the Peronist was filed in 2019 by the Argentine Public Ministry.
According to the complaint, the vice president and several former officials signed million-dollar contracts to carry out road works that were allegedly incomplete and overpriced.
The prosecutors said they had obtained sufficient evidence that she was the head of an illicit association that, during her administration as president (2007-2015) and that of her husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), favored the businessman – and partner of the former presidential family – Lázaro Báez in concessions of 51 public works.
Cristina Kirchner denies all the accusations.
In November, when the case was in a procedural phase called “final words” in Argentina, the vice president said that the process to which she responds resembled a firing squad.”
“In December 2019, I said that this was the court of lawfare (a politically motivated process), but more than that, it was a real firing squad,” she declared in a hearing by videoconference.
Also, in the brief speech, she accused the prosecutors of having lied, invented facts, and hidden information throughout the process.
“They tried to kill me, but the shot didn’t come out,” she said.
“The woman who accompanied the person who wanted to kill me was following the prosecutors on Facebook and Twitter social networks.”
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This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief