Fernández de Kirchner begins serving a six-year house arrest sentence.
The 72-year-old former president, who was also permanently banned from office, denounced the sentence as political persecution.
BarcelonaThe Six-year prison sentence against former Argentine President Cristina Fernández It came into effect this Tuesday when the court granted her house arrest and rescinded her scheduled court appearance this Wednesday. "It should be established that as of today, Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner is being detained under house arrest, serving the final sentence of six years in prison, perpetual special disqualification from holding public office, legal accessories, and the costs of the proceedings imposed on her therein."
Kirchner, 72, was convicted by a lower court in 2022 of corruption in a fraud case related to public highway projects in Patagonia that allegedly benefited a close ally. Argentina's Supreme Court last week upheld the sentence, which also includes a lifelong ban from holding public office, and on Tuesday a judge approved the former president's request to serve the sentence at her residence in Buenos Aires, due to her age.
The 'former president and vice president of Argentina She has consistently denied any wrongdoing and insists that her conviction is due solely to political persecution. The former president, who held this office between 2007 and 2015, denounces a network of right-wing politics and media in the form of lawfare In the so-called Roads Case, initiated in 2016, an investigation was conducted into whether businessman Lázaro Báez had benefited from the awarding of 51 public road works contracts with state funds in the province of Santa Cruz (the Kirchners' estate) in Patagonia between 2003 and 2016. Initially, Attorney General Diego Luciani had requested 12 years in prison for the crimes of illicit association and fraudulent administration, but Kirchner was acquitted of the former, so she was only convicted of the latter, with the maximum sentence of six years. Public works have been one of the main targets to be taken down. by the ultra-liberal government of Javier Milei, which has completely stopped him because he considers it expensive and inefficient.