This afternoon, a federal judge sentenced Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to six years in jail in the bogus corruption case alleging malfeasance in public works funding in the province of Santa Cruz during the time she served as President (2007-2015). The sentencing for “fraudulent administration” also includes a lifetime ban on holding public office.
Twelve other defendants also received jail sentences, ranging from three to six years. The sentence won’t be executed until all appeals are exhausted, which could take years. For the moment, Fernandez de Kirchner enjoys immunity because of her position as Vice President, and she can also run for President or any other post should she decide to do so in next year’s elections.
Last week, Fernandez had described the sentencing process as “a firing squad,” in which the verdict had been “written long ago,” based not on the Constitution but on the machinations of the corrupt judges, prosecutors, and lawyers who answer to the thuggish former President Mauricio Macri, who operates like a mafia don. These networks also protect “those who tried to kill me,” she said.
Following the verdict today, Fernandez de Kirchner labeled the sentencing the work of a “parallel mafia state…a para-state system” that operates outside of all norms of constitutional law and the laws of a democratic state. She then presented some of the devastating evidence that emerged this past weekend that proves that point quite dramatically.
