Thanks to her parliamentary immunity, Cristina Kirchner will not go behind bars for the moment. The vice-president of Argentina was still sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison and life ineligibility, in a trial for fraud and corruption during her presidential terms from 2007 to 2015.
At 69, she was found guilty of “fraudulent administration” to the detriment of the state, in this trial relating to the awarding of public contracts in her political stronghold of Santa Cruz, during her two terms as president. Twelve years in prison, as well as ineligibility, had been requested against her in August.
Candidate for nothing in 2023
In the process, the former head of state affirmed that she “will not be a candidate for anything, neither senator, nor vice-president, nor president” in the general elections of 2023. Her position as President of the Senate, synonymous of parliamentary immunity, saves him from prison. Immunity to which she therefore seemed to renounce in the future by announcing that in 2023 she “will return home”. “Let them put me in prison!” she said, defiantly. However, a sentence could only be effective after several appeals, including possibly before the Supreme Court, which could take several years.
The former head of state (centre-left), who seven years after her departure from the presidency remains an essential figure, as much as divisive, of Argentine politics, has always denied any wrongdoing. And she has denounced, since the start of the procedure in 2019, a “political” trial, led by judges, according to her, instrumentalized by the right-wing opposition, in particular the “Macrist” camp, in reference to her successor in the presidency (2015-2019), the liberal Mauricio Macri.
Argentinian president criticizes court ruling
“The sentence was written. The idea was to condemn me, ”also reacted to the verdict Cristina Kirchner in a video address from her Senate office. She denounced “a parallel state”, a “judicial mafia”. “Today, in Argentina, an innocent person has been convicted (…) when politics enters the courts, justice goes out the window,” tweeted Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez. The Mexican head of state Andrés Manuel López Obrador (left) also expressed his solidarity with Cristina Kirchner, victim according to him “of a political revenge and an undemocratic baseness of conservatism”.
In August, the indictment triggered large demonstrations of support for Cristina Kirchner, in several cities in Argentina, and several evenings under the windows of her home in Buenos Aires, giving rise to clashes with the police. However, this time the verdict only generated a modest mobilization. No strong directive had emanated from the entourage of the vice-president.