Prosecutors demand 12 year jail term for Cristina Kirchner for alleged corruption during her two terms as Argentina’s president

 Wednesday, August 24, 2022 – Argentina’s public prosecutor has asked that Vice President Cristina Kirchner be sentenced to 12 years in prison and disqualified from public office for life for alleged corruption during her two terms as president.

Kirchner, 69, is accused of fraudulently awarding public works contracts in her fiefdom in Patagonia.

With a verdict expected at the end of the year,  Kirchner would not go to jail  if she’s convicted she because she benefits from parliamentary immunity as an elected senator, Mail Online reports.

There are two ways she could lose her parliamentary immunity: either by losing her senate seat at the next election, or if the Supreme Court were to ratify an eventual guilty verdict, the report adds.

After public prosecutor Diego Luciani’s request was made public on Monday night, August 22,  the office of President Alberto Fernandez issued a statement condemning ‘the judicial and media persecution’ of Kirchner.

‘None of the actions attributed to the ex-president has been proved and the whole accusation is based purely on the function she exercised at that time, which sadly degrades the most basic principles of modern criminal law.’

Another 12 people are also accused of involvement in the illicit attribution of public works contracts in the southern Santa Cruz province in favor of businessman Lazaro Baez.

The period investigated includes Kirchner’s eight years in office from 2007 to 2015 and the preceding four years when her late husband Nestor Kirchner, who died in 2010, was president.

Luciani hit out at ‘an authentic system of institutional corruption’ which he said was ‘probably the biggest corruption operation the country has known.’

Sergio Mola, another public prosecutor, said ‘there were systematic irregularities in the tenders over a 12-year period.’

‘The evidence clearly demonstrates illicit manoeuvres,’ added Mola, who said the defendants had sought to defraud the state through ‘discretion in the use of funds.’

‘It is not credible that Cristina Fernandez (Kirchner) would not have known about anything in the solitude of her office,’ said Mola.

Kirchner, who is also a lawyer is preparing to legally challenges the case.

She claimed Monday on Twitter that the prosecution is in ‘open violation of the principle of defense in court,’ alleging that some of the charges against her had not previously been brought up.

She also announced that on Tuesday she would broadcast her defense on social media, while slamming the whole process as a media and legal ‘firing squad.’

The crimes she is accused of are punishable by up to 16 years in prison.