Defense claims that ‘blatant violations of constitutional guarantees were committed throughout the trial’ and that ‘magistrates incurred serious arbitrariness by deciding the sentence’
Former Argentina President (2007-2015) filed a complaint in the Supreme Court on Monday to annul her sentence of six years in prison and a lifetime prohibition of holding public positions by fraudulent administration of public works during her term. In a ten -page document, Cristina’s defense team, led by lawyer Carlos Beraldi, asked the Supreme Court to “cancel the decision and acquit CFK (Cristina Fernández de Kirchner) of the accusations.”
The appeal was submitted after the fourth chamber of the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation declared an inadmissible, on March 21, a request from the current president of the Justicialist Party (PJ) for his case to be reviewed by the Court. In the judicial document, which Cristina made public on social networks, her defense team claims that “blatant violations of constitutional guarantees were committed throughout the trial” and that “the magistrates incurred serious arbitrariness when deciding the sentence.”
The Supreme Court can now accept the appeal and issue a decision, or reject it and not address the background issue, which would force the former president to appeal to international organizations. If the Supreme Court maintains the sentence, Cristina may serve the sentence under house arrest, as the Argentine law grants this benefit to people over 70.
In the document, the defense stated that there was a “deliberate decision to deprive Cristina Kirchner of the guarantees that anyone should enjoy in the face of criminal proceedings and to make a sentence that, among other things, determines their permanent exclusion from political life.” “In this case, a kind of exceptional power was applied, in which the logic of defining what is lawful and illicit was set aside in favor of a decision -making power that abandons the basic principles of judicial function: to apply the law to the case impartially, based on the evidence gathered in a judgment conducted according to the law,” they emphasized.
In addition to the appeal, Cristina’s defense team filed a second motion to remove the judge of Supreme Court Manuel García-Mansilla, appointed by decree of the president, on the grounds that his involvement would violate the independence of the case. In his account on social network X, Cristina accused Milei of ordering the judiciary to condemn her after her recent appearances on newspaper reports, in which the current head of state said “she goes to jail.”
“He didn’t say that just once … He repeated several times with absolute certainty and aggressively … almost as if he was giving an order,” said the former president. “This, in addition to implying improper and intolerable interference in judicial matters (something expressly prohibited in article 109 of the National Constitution), has a direct impact on the situation of the judge appointed in commission, who was led to office, as already said, by the sole will by Javier Milei, who demands my conviction to prison,” he added.
If the Federal Supreme Court upholds both complaints, it will have to send the case to the prosecutor, headed by Eduardo Casal, to issue a decision. In the midst of an election year that will renew the chairs in Congress and with the possibility of Cristina running for a position in Buenos Aires province, speculation about the time of court decision, but the Supreme Court has no deadline to decide on the case.
*With information from EFE
Posted by Fernando Dias
