Corruption proceedings are underway against the incumbent Vice President Christina Kirchner. The public prosecutor’s office is demanding a lifelong ban from public office in addition to the prison sentence.
A woman demonstrates for justice in front of Vice President Cristina Kirchner’s house in Buenos Aires.
(dpa)
In the corruption proceedings against former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner (2007 – 2015), the public prosecutor’s office is demanding twelve years in prison and a lifelong ban from public office. “It’s about the biggest corruption network the country has ever seen,” prosecutor Diego Luciani said in his closing speech on Monday. «Dear judges, now is the moment. Corruption or justice.” The incumbent Vice President Kirchner was the leader of a criminal organization and deprived the state of around one billion US dollars.
Kirchner and her late husband and ex-president Néstor Kirchner are said to have procured a whole series of public contracts for a friendly contractor without a tender. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the confidant’s company received around 80 percent of all public road construction contracts in Kirchner’s home region of Santa Cruz. Part of the excessive construction costs flowed back later to the Kirchners.
After the prosecutor’s closing arguments, arguments broke out between supporters and opponents of the vice president in front of Kirchner’s apartment in the elegant Recoleta district. Police finally separated the hostile groups and fired tear gas into the crowd. The verdict against Kirchner is expected to fall at the end of the year. It can then be challenged before the Supreme Court. It could be years before a final judgment is reached.