Argentina’s Vice President Could go to Jail for Corruption
2022.12.06 14:07
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Argentina’s Vice President Could go to Jail for Corruption
Budrigannews.com – Judges are expected to rule on Tuesday in a high-profile corruption case, and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina’s powerful but divided vice president, may receive a 12-year prison sentence and be disqualified from holding public office.
As the case progresses through higher courts for years, the vice president is likely to file an appeal.
Prosecutors are bringing charges against President Fernandez de Kirchner for alleged corruption in the awarding of public works, despite the fact that he served as president for two terms—from 2007 to 2015—and that he enjoys rock-star crowds of supporters. She has refuted the claims and referred to the court as a “firing squad.”
“It is clear that there will be a conviction,” Fernandez de Kirchner said in a meeting with Brazilian paper Folha de Sao Paulo distributed on Monday. She claimed that constitutional safeguards were breached during the procedure.
However, lawyers asserted that because she enjoyed immunity while serving as vice president, Fernandez de Kirchner would not face charges anytime soon. Before she could be imprisoned, a political trial would be required to remove her from office.
Attorney Alejandro Carrio said, “She currently has privileges as vice president, which means she is one of the officials whose removal requires a political trial.” He also said that appeals to the Supreme Court could take years to process.
“I do not see the process taking less than three years for a case of this magnitude.”
Even with a guilty verdict, supporters of Fernandez de Kirchner, who gathered in the streets after she survived an attempted assassination earlier this year, might react with rage. After a prolonged economic crisis and inflation that is approaching 100 percent, the nation is nervous.
It could also cast doubt on President Alberto Fernandez’s Peronist government, which is currently fighting a difficult battle to ward off a challenge from the conservative opposition in the upcoming general elections.
Prosecutors claim that contracts for public works were given to a businessman who was a friend of Fernandez de Kirchner. The businessman then allegedly sent money back to her and her late husband, Nestor Kirchner, who was also a former president.
The vice president’s supporters claim that she is the target of judicial persecution.
Julio Burdman, director of the Electoral Observatory consultancy, stated that it could have a significant impact if Fernandez de Kirchner were disqualified from holding public office.
“The connection between the decision alliance and resistance would be extraordinarily stressed and the decision party in general would respond unequivocally and censure it as oppression,” he said.
