© Reuters. On the way to conviction? Tonight – a decision on the corruption cases of the vice president of Argentina
| Damien Pechter, Israel Today |
The court in Argentina on Tuesday night sentenced Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to six years in prison and a permanent ban on holding public office, in a historic ruling for corruption charges that could seal the political career of the one who served as president of Argentina between 2007-2015.
The trial took place after three and a half years of discussions. As mentioned, the prosecution demanded 12 years of actual imprisonment as well as the imposition of a defamation that would prevent her from being elected to any public office. Outside the court building in central Buenos Aires, supporters of the former president gathered.
Fernandez de Kirchner and 12 other people, including the national infrastructure minister in her government, Julio de Vido, were accused, among other things, of biasing state tenders for the construction corporation of Lazaro Baaz, an associate of the Kirchner family from their hometown in Argentine Patagonia.
Prosecutor Diego Luciani accused Fernandez de Kirchner of running a network of organized crime in order to receive state funds.
“Néstor Kirchner (former president of Argentina; DP) and later his wife, Cristina Fernandez, installed and maintained within the government one of the extraordinary systems of corruption that developed in the country”,
Luciani said. He called Fernandez de Kirchner “the boss of a criminal organization.”
Despite the request for imprisonment, the current vice president enjoys parliamentary immunity by virtue of her position. To change this status, a special majority vote in Parliament is required. Also, the road to actual imprisonment is expected to first encounter a series of appeals.
On September 1, Fernandez de Kirchner was saved from an assassination attempt when she went to greet the crowd outside her home. An unknown man named Fernando Andres Savag Montiel (35), who was waiting for her, pointed a gun at her head from point blank range and pulled the trigger, but luckily the weapon was jammed.
Montiel was immediately arrested by the crowd, is in custody and charged with attempted murder. Around Fernandez de Kirchner, the local opposition was accused of being responsible for the incident and the official investigation is underway.
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