The former president Cristina Kirchner Today he faces confirmation of his sentence of six years in prison and perpetual disqualification to hold public office. Starting at 11, the judges of the Cassation Chamber They will read part of the ruling that will ratify the sentence imposed by an oral court two years ago, for the case Roadswhere she was found guilty of fraud against the State by directing public works tenders in Santa Cruz in favor of Lázaro Báez.
The sentence will be read in a public hearing of Chamber IV of the Cassation, which presides Gustavo Hornoswho will be accompanied by Mariano Borinsky and Diego Barroetaveña. The procedure will be short, it won’t even last half an hourthey anticipate in court. There the background of the convictions and acquittals imposed by the Federal Oral Court 2, in 2022, and the operative part of the Cassation ruling will be known.
Cristina Kirchner will not be in the hearing roombut their lawyers; the prosecutor before the Cassation, Mario Villarand the lawyers of the rest of the accused. The judges chose to hold the hearing in Room B of Comodoro Py 2002, on the ground floor of the building, on the end closest to the La Plata River.
At the far end, in front of the door of the courts, there will be Kirchnerist militants who will attend a “public class” on the lawfarewhich will dictate Juan Martin MenaMinister of Justice of Axel Kicillof, and Juan Grabois. There will be about 200 police controlling security.
The judges will sign the ruling – about 1800 pages– before the hearing. Then, they will read a piece that summarizes the most salient points of the decision, which will be protocolized and electronic copies of which will be delivered to the parties.
All sources agree that the judges will reject all appeals from the prosecution and the defense, which would make the sentence imposed in the oral trial by the judges final. Jorge Gorini, Rodrigo Gimenez Uriburu and Andres Bassowho found the former president guilty of the crime of fraudulent administration, sentencing her to six years in prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
The judges of TOF No. 2, Andres Basso, Jorge Gorini and Rodrigo Gimenez UriburuArchive
With Basso’s dissent, Gorini and Giménez Uriburu acquitted her of the crime of illicit associationby which the trial prosecutor, Diego Luciani had requested a 12-year sentence. Prosecutor Villar supported that idea before the Cassation.
Báez, owner of Austral Construcciones, was also sentenced to six years in prison as a necessary participant in the crime of fraudulent administration. The former Secretary of Public Works received the same penalty Jose Lopez and the former head of the National Highway Directorate (DNV) Nelson Periotti. López had previously been convicted of illicit enrichment and illegal possession of a firearm.
Julio De Vido, Cristina Kirchner and José LópezArchive
The former Minister of Federal Planning Julio De Vido was acquitted of all charges and it will continue like this. The same as Fatal Abelwho was López’s second in the Ministry of Public Works, and Santiago Kirchnercousin of Néstor Kirchner, who was dismissed.
Héctor Garro, former head of Highways of Santa Cruz, was acquitted by the court, which instead sentenced the other directors of that provincial body during the presidencies of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner: Mauricio Collareda (four years), Raúl Daruich (three years and six months), Raúl Pavesi (four years and six months), José Raúl Santibáñez (four years) and Juan Carlos Villafañe (five years).
Cristina Kirchner has already decided that she is going to present an extraordinary appeal for the Supreme Court to revoke this decision of the Cassation to make his sentence final. Prosecutor Villar plans to do the same, but so that the Court increases the sentence to 12 years, for illicit association. He will also appeal the acquittals of the rest of the accused.
The accused and the prosecution have 10 business days to raise this appeal, which, if the Cassation admits it, opens the doors to reach the Court. If the Cassation rejects it (something unlikely in the courts), they have to go to Court through a complaint.
Cristina Kirchner is the first sitting vice president to be convicted of corruption charges, since when she was tried and convicted Beloved Boudouin 2018, had already left public service.
Cristina Kirchner and Amado BoudouArchive
Even with the conviction confirmed by the Cassation, Cristina Kirchner will not go to prisonsince the sentence is final and has application – according to the new Federal Criminal Procedure Code, partially in force – when all judicial review instances have been exhausted. That is, when the Supreme Court rejects the accused’s last appeal, which can take years.
Cristina Kirchner does not have jurisdiction to prevent her arrest, but she is over 70 years old, so if the Court upheld today’s ruling, she could serve her sentence at home. Likewise, if the law of “clean record” in Congress, with this Cassation ruling she could not be a candidate.
The evidence that led to Cristina Kirchner being convicted of fraud, assessed by the Federal Oral Court No. 2 in 2022, is the regulations that expanded the works budgets and the decree which allowed the creation of a public works trust. From here 51 tenders were analyzed that the judges understood that they were irregularthey were directedwhich they had surcharges and? were not concluded the agreed works.
The court analyzed that the money for the works was paid with priority to Báez and with privileges about the other contractors, that the Santa Cruz businessman part of those funds was transferred to the assets of the presidential couplefor example by paying rent for their hotels or properties, a situation that is investigated in the case Hotesur and Los Sauceswhose trial was stopped by the corresponding oral court pending the Court’s ruling. The judges understood that there was an interest on the part of Cristina Kirchner to privilege Báez with operations that benefited her.
Key evidence was the whatsapp messages of Secretary López, convicted of corruption, to Julio Mendozapresident of Austral Construcciones, where he alluded to meetings between Cristina Kirchner and Báez before Mauricio Macri assumed power. In fact, in those messages it was said that Báez wanted to collect everything before Kirchner left the government and that then the companies should be disarmed, in what prosecutor Luciani called the “plan to clean everything”. In those messages it was said that they were waiting for Cristina Kirchner’s decisions.
In addition to this case, Cristina Kirchner still has to face the trial of Hotesur and Los Sauces, for money laundering; the trial for the signing of the pact with Iran and the trial for the bribery notebooks case. Furthermore, the Court must decide whether it is appropriate to judge it for the “future dollar” case, where the attorney Eduardo Casal He ruled on the need to hold an oral trial.
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