Argentinian Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was found guilty of fraud charges and sentenced to six years in prison by a federal court on Tuesday in a landmark case that’s likely to intensify political battles in the South American nation.

While Fernández de Kirchner won’t need to serve the term for the foreseeable future given her immunity as vice-president and head of the senate, the court decision comes less than 11 months before presidential elections, with her having hinted at a possible run. The Buenos Aires-based court also banned her from holding political office in the future.

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Kirchner (69) has the option of appealing against the decision to the supreme court, dragging out the process further. To strip Kirchner of her current senatorial immunity, two-thirds of legislators in the upper chamber of congress would have to vote to remove it, which isn’t expected to happen given the government’s hold on the chamber. 

‘Illicit association’

Kirchner, one of Argentina’s most powerful and polarising figures, was accused of graft and of allegedly leading an “illicit association” together with a construction magnate in the years she was president between 2007 and 2015, with prosecutors asking for a 12-year prison sentence. In their ruling, judges absolved her of the illicit association charge. 

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner leaves her home to greet hundreds of supporters in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires on 30 August 2022. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Juan Ignacio Roncoroni)

Thousands of supporters of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner demonstrate at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires on 2 September 2022. On the night of 1 September, the Argentinian Federal Police arrested an armed man metres from the vice-president at the doors of her apartment in the capital’s Recoleta neighbourhood. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Juan Ignacio Roncoroni)

The vice-president repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has denounced the case as a political manoeuvre by the opposition and members of the judiciary to oust her from power, saying after Tuesday’s ruling that the decision was taken by a “judicial mafia”.

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“If Kirchner appeals before the supreme court, she may still be a candidate in the next elections for the position she wishes, since the sentence is only final when all judicial review processes have been exhausted,” said Mariano Machado, principal Americas analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a risk intelligence company. “That would happen when the Supreme Court of Justice rejects Kirchner’s last appeal, which could take years.”

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The sentencing is poised to increase political tensions in a deeply divided country and is likely to galvanise the fragmented ruling coalition ahead of next year’s elections. President Alberto Fernández, who was handpicked by Kirchner to lead the coalition despite having less political clout, sided with his vice-president, calling the probe a “political” investigation. 

Former president of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner speaks at a rally held by President Fernández in Buenos Aires on 10 December 2021. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Juan Ignacio Roncoroni)

Social and union groups linked to the ruling coalition also protested across downtown Buenos Aires on Tuesday before the court’s decision.

“There is going to be fallout, and there is going to be a deepening of divisions between the various factions of the government’s ruling coalition,” said Manuel Balan, an associate professor of political science at McGill University, who specialises in Argentina and political corruption. DM

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