Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, accused of corruption and against whom the prosecution requested 12 years in prison, counterattacked this Tuesday with a fierce defense speech in which she denounced what she considers a judicial persecution to ban her from politics.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing of what (the prosecutors) said was proven. When I said that they had the sentence written, I fell short,” Kirchner said in a release of more than two hours broadcast on social networks from his office of the presidency of the Senate.
Kirchner, who enjoys parliamentary privileges, had requested an extension of her preliminary statement for this Tuesday, but the court dismissed the request, considering that this stage had already closed and that she will be able to present her points in the defense’s arguments, as of of September 5.
“It’s 12 years (of prison request), the 12 years of the best government that Argentina had in recent decades, that’s why they ask for 12 years. That’s why they are going to stigmatize and condemn me. If I were born 20 times, 20 times I would do the same ” exclaimed the vice president.
“They want to take revenge, this disciplines the political class so that no one dares to do the same thing twice,” he said.
This is what we know about the accusations against him.
The government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
The accusation dates back to her two terms as president (2007-2015) and the previous one (2003-2007) of her husband Néstor Kirchner, who died in 2010.
what he is acussed?
Federal prosecutor Diego Luciani said that the Peronist leader —accused along with other former officials— committed the crimes of fraudulent administration to the detriment of the State.
The case described her as the head of an illicit association, with which she supposedly guided the attribution of public works tenders in the province of Santa Cruz, in the south of Argentina, her political cradle, to favor the businessman Lázaro Báez.
The investigation seeks to establish whether Fernández and other officials of his management favored Báez firms when bidding for dozens of public works in Patagonia, many of which could have been overpriced or would not have been completed.
“This is probably the biggest corruption maneuver that has ever been known in the country,” said the prosecutor during his plea, broadcast live on the internet.
Luciani also requested the confiscation of assets involved in the crimes for a total of almost 1,000 million dollars and the perpetual disqualification of Fernández from holding public office.
Many experts suspect that the allegedly diverted capital would have returned to the hands of the Kirchner family through their companies.
The judicial process began in 2019 and it is estimated that the verdict of the judges will be known by the end of the year. In case of conviction, Kirchner can appeal.
Until there is a final sentence from the Supreme Court and due to her political immunity as vice president and head of the Senate, she would not be imprisoned nor would she be disqualified.
However, a sentence this year could affect the chances of the center-left ruling party in the presidential elections at the end of 2023.
Kirchner has been dismissed in several cases for alleged crimes that occurred when she was president, but she still faces five trials.
With information from AFP and Reuters
