Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is sentenced to 6 years in prison

• Vice President of Argentina sentenced to 6 years in prison.
• Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was found guilty of fraudulent administration.
• The politician defends herself against accusations.

Vice President Cristina Fernández is convicted. On Tuesday, the vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, received bad news when she was sentenced to six years in prison and disqualified for life from holding public office for acts of corruption while she was in office between 2007 and 2015. But what will happen to the politician?

According to various media, the South American vice president received a harsh sentence. Similarly, she received a lifetime disqualification from holding public office for a fraud scheme where she embezzled $1 billion through public works projects during her time in office.

Vice President Cristina Fernández is sentenced to prison

Cristina Fernández was found guilty of fraudulent administration and prejudice to the public administration during a period that encompasses her two terms as vice president. Officials say that she orchestrated the extraction of funds from the State for her personal benefit or that of a third party.

Despite the fact that she was sentenced to prison, Fernández de Kirchner will not go to jail right away because the sentence can be appealed up to the Supreme Court, which will have the last word. It is worth mentioning that it is the first time that an Argentine vice president has been sentenced while in office.

What was she accused of?

This verdict could impact Vice President Cristina, since it is the first time that a vice president of this South American country has been convicted while in office. In addition, the Peronist leader is the most popular political figure of the last 20 years.

A panel made up of three judges sentenced Fernández de Kirchner. They have banned the Argentine from holding political office for life. They rejected the charge of directing a criminal organization, which could have meant up to 12 years in prison. Filed Under: Vice President Cristina Fernández sentenced

Is she banned from politics?

Prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola argued that Báez’s company was a structured to extract funds from the State by directing public works tenders and that, when Fernández de Kirchner’s term ended, it disappeared. They also claimed that several highway projects registered cost overruns and many were never completed.

During the trial, Luciani maintained that, «We are facing the greatest corruption maneuver that has ever been known in the country,» and that it was in force during the two terms of Fernández de Kirchner and the presidency of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), her husband and predecessor, who died three years after leaving office. Filed Under: Vice President Cristina Fernández sentenced

Cristina Fernández defends herself against the accusations

After the news of the sentence was released, Fernández de Kirchner said that she would not run for office next year. She later denied the charges and accused the court of having the sentence written from the start of the trial and of acting as a «firing squad.»

She stated that the accusations had no legal basis and were based on lies. The center-left leader was said to be persecuted by judicial sectors in cahoots with her successor, former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), to undermine her popularity, remove her from the political scene and outlaw Kirchnerism. With information from  The Associated Press, El universal and CNN. Filed Under: Vice President Cristina Fernández sentenced