Argentina’s Supreme Court has confirmed a six-year prison sentence against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for corruption, also upholding a lifetime ban from holding public office.
The unanimous decision from the country’s highest court rejected Kirchner’s appeal and finalized the 2022 ruling that found her guilty of embezzlement.
A polarizing opposition figure and leftist president from 2007 to 2015, Kirchner was convicted by a trial court in 2022 for a fraud scheme that steered public road work projects in the Patagonia to a close ally while she was president.
Prosecutors accused her of directing hundreds of millions of dollars to construction magnate Lázaro Báez. During her government and that of her late husband, Néstor Kirchner, companies tied to Báez were awarded dozens of government contracts but nearly half of the projects were abandoned, prosecutors said.
Báez and other officials were sentenced to prison terms.
Kirchner, who led the country from 2007 to 2015 and later served as vice president until 2023, went to the Peronist party headquarters in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, hours before the ruling was made public.
Though sentenced to prison, Kirchner, now 72 years-old, may serve her time under house arrest in either Buenos Aires or Santa Cruz.
Her legal team has repeatedly dismissed the charges as politically motivated and accused parts of the judiciary of targeting her.
The ruling reshapes Argentina’s political landscape. Kirchner remains a major opposition figure to President Javier Milei’s government, and this decision bars her from running for office again.
Milei reacted to the ruling with a brief post on X: “Justice. The end.”
Kirchner is the first former Argentine president to be convicted. Former President Carlos Menem was sentenced in another case but died before serving prison time.
Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight killed at least two people and injured 15 others, including two children, Ukrainian authorities said.&nbs...
Saudi Aramco has ordered staff to evacuate its headquarters amid escalating Houthi attacks on the kingdom. Two people were killed in an attack on D...
Nigeria's first Ebola case in more than a decade may be linked to travel in Uganda, Swiss authorities said on Thursday, although the source of ...
Russia is willing in principle to resume peace talks with Ukraine and the United States in November, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said after President Vladimir Putin met U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg.
Saudi Aramco has ordered staff to evacuate its headquarters amid escalating Houthi attacks on the kingdom. Two people were killed in an attack on Dammam airport, while Iran's IRGC Navy claimed strikes on seven vessels and warned the U.S. of a wider response.
Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight killed at least two people and injured 15 others, including two children, Ukrainian authorities said. Meanwhile, Russia said it had intercepted the vast majority of 630 Ukrainian drones launched towards Moscow.
Yemen's Houthis have denied targeting the holy city of Medina on Wednesday adding that they have not conducted any military operations towards Saudi Arabia either, denying earlier comments from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
Georgia’s Constitutional Court in Batumi will on Wednesday hear a lawsuit seeking to ban five Georgian opposition parties, four of which collectively gained 784,820 votes (37.79 per cent) in the country’s last national elections in 2024.
Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight killed at least two people and injured 15 others, including two children, Ukrainian authorities said. Meanwhile, Russia said it had intercepted the vast majority of 630 Ukrainian drones launched towards Moscow.
Nigeria's first Ebola case in more than a decade may be linked to travel in Uganda, Swiss authorities said on Thursday, although the source of infection remains unclear. Uganda maintains it has no cases of the disease.
Super typhoon Champi is set to batter Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture from Friday (23 October), bringing violent winds, torrential rain and waves up to 11 metres high, as airlines cancel flights and organisers scrap a major festival.
Two women from Austria and Switzerland have been freed after lengthy periods in captivity in Niger, following extensive diplomatic efforts to secure their release amid growing concerns over kidnappings in the Sahel region.
France has reported its first known human case of Shamonda virus following the death of an infected patient, authorities said on Thursday (22 October). The virus, typically found in livestock, is believed to have been transmitted by a biting midge.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment