Will she go to jail? The controversial judicial sentence that sends Cristina Fernández to 6 years in prison

The vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was sentenced this Tuesday to 6 years in prison and lifelong disqualification from holding public office, at the end of a trial that lasted three and a half years and was surrounded by scandals and accusations of bias.

The Federal Oral Court number 2, made up of judges Jorge Gorini, Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu and Andrés Basso, found the former president guilty of the crime of «fraudulent administration to the detriment of the public administration», reports RT.

However, she was acquitted of the crime of illicit association that the prosecutors in the case had accused her of, and whose maximum sentence was 12 years in prison.

Thus concluded a process in which there were 13 defendants who received sentences ranging from acquittal to six years in prison, and in which more than 100 witnesses participated.

The judges announced that the foundations of the verdict will be announced on March 9. Until that day, the judicial arguments that they took into account to issue the sentences will be known.

Fernández de Kirchner was accused of having led an illegal association that, during her two governments (2007-2015) and that of her deceased husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), directed millionaire public works funds in favor of the businessman Lázaro Baez, who was a friend and associate of the couple.

In her plea, prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola asked that she receive a sentence of 12 years in prison, perpetual disqualification from holding public office and confiscation of her assets. In the end, the Court opted for a lesser sentence.Reactions

Minutes after the ruling was read, the vice president offered a message in which she recalled the multiple procedural irregularities in the case.

«The condemnation was written (…) It is clear that the idea was to condemn me, as they finally did», she said.

The trial is historic because it is the first time that a political figure with such a high position has been sentenced in the exercise of her functions. Previously, former presidents Carlos Menem and Fernando de la Rúa and former vice president Amado Boudou were sentenced, but they no longer held their posts.

The importance of the case is also due to the fact that Fernández de Kirchner is the most important political figure in the South American country since the presidential sash was placed on her, for the first time, in 2007.

For this reason, despite the fact that neither she nor her government called for any type of public demonstration this Tuesday, organizations and citizens in general marched spontaneously to the courts.

From the beginning of the trial, Fernández de Kirchner assured that the sentence was written in advance because it was part of the «lawfare» (judicial persecution) that has been carried out against her, since her second presidency ended in 2015 and whose only end is her disqualification from holding public office for the rest of her life.

«[The court] is a firing squad», accused the former president last week during her last speech.

The political and media opposition, for their part, celebrated the sentence before and after it was released.The case against Fernandez

The former president starred in what was called the ‘Highway Cause’ (Causa Viallidad), since it originated in an audit carried out by the National Directorate of Highways in 2016, during the government of her successor, Mauricio Macri, and which investigated 51 public works contracts that were obtained by the businessman Lázaro Báez in the province of Santa Cruz, located in the extreme south of the country, and which has been the political territory of the Kirchner family.

Néstor Kirchner governed that province from 1991 to 2003, the year in which he became president. Since then, Báez, one of his closest friends, began to obtain bids that enriched him. In total, he kept 78.5% of the road works contracts. Although he collected, he left more than half unfinished. Today he is sentenced in other cases for corruption.

The trial began in May 2019 and, already in the final stretch, the prosecutors requested sentences of between two and 12 years in prison for the 13 defendants.

In addition to Fernández de Kirchner, the businessman Lázaro Báez, the former Minister of Planning Julio De Vido, the former Secretary of Public Works José López and the former director of National Roads, Néstor Periotti, who were accused of having been part of the «illicit association» were tried. 

They were joined, with minor charges, by the former Undersecretary of Public Works, Abel Claudio Fatala, the former heads of the National Road Administration, Raúl Osvaldo Daruich and Mauricio Collareda, the former general directors of the General Administration of Provincial Roads of Santa Cruz, Juan Carlos Villafañe, Raúl Gilberto Pavesi, José Raúl Santibáñez and Héctor René Jesús Garro and the former Secretary of Coordination of Federal Public Works, Carlos Santiago Kirchner.Controversies

The fracture that the figure of Fernández de Kirchner has caused in Argentine society for 15 years was once again evident during a trial, in which her detractors condemned her and her followers exonerated her in advance.

The controversies were permanent in these three and a half years and intensified in recent months.

On August 1, prosecutor Diego Luciani gained notoriety with a harsh and histrionic plea in which he accused the former president and her deceased husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner, of having created «one of the most extraordinary corruption matrices that unfortunately and sadly have been developed in the country».

Days later, photos were discovered in which Luciani and Rodrigo Giménez de Uriburu, one of the judges on the court that was trying Fernández de Kirchner, played soccer together on the fields of former President Mauricio Macri’s country house. «The judiciary stinks», condemned the vice president.

Then came marches and acts in favor of Fernández de Kirchner, more social tension, until on September 1 the trial was completely wrapped up in the commotion caused by the attack on the vice president and which she blamed on the ‘hate campaign’ generated by her opponents.

The political tension that has always surrounded the process increased even more last weekend, after chats held by judges, officials and media entrepreneurs were leaked in which they allegedly manipulated the evidence of a luxurious trip they made together to the Patagonia, with all expenses paid by the Clarín Group (the most important multimedia in the country and the greatest enemy of Kirchnerism).

One of the travelers is Judge Julián Ercolini, investigator of the case against Fernández de Kirchner, that is, who gathered the alleged evidence and considered it sufficient for the investigation to reach an oral and public trial.The scenarios for Fernández

Beyond the sentence, there is no possibility that Fernández de Kirchner will go to jail.

First, because thanks to her position as vice president, she has privileges. For this reason, she should first face a political trial to be removed from the position for which she was elected and whose term expires on December 10, 2023.

In addition, her lawyers will appeal any guilty sentence, so the ruling must go to the Criminal Cassation Chamber for its analysis. The last stage will be settled in the Supreme Court of Justice, but it is a process that can take several years.

Another reason why the former president could not be arrested immediately is that she will turn 70 next February and the law grants the benefit of house arrest to any convicted person over that age.

As long as the sentence is not final, Fernández de Kirchner will not have to submit to the disqualification either. Despite this, this Tuesday she ruled out any nomination for public office in next year’s general elections.

«My name will not be on any ballot. I will return on December 10 to the same house where I left to accompany my partner (Néstor Kirchner)», she said.