The Supreme Court of Argentina rejected the appeal filed by former President Cristina Fernández (2007-2015) and firmly left the sentence to six years in prison and perpetual disqualification to exercise public positions, dictated against her in 2022 for irregularities in the concession of road works.
After this decision, unanimously adopted by the three judges of the Supreme, Fernández could be arrested in the next hours or days to comply with the conviction, which the former president has described as a case of ‘Lawfare’, that is, judicial and political persecution.
“The sentences issued by the previous courts settled in the profuse evidence produced (…) without being demonstrated in any way that the decision appealed does not constitute a reasoned referral of the current law in accordance with the particular circumstances proven in the case, nor that during the process some constitutional guarantee has been violated,” says the ruling of Judges Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz and Ricardo Lorenzetti.
And he adds: “Due process has been safeguarded and the appellant has obtained a sentence based on law,” he adds.
The decision thus ratified the sentence in the second instance for irregularities in the granting of public works in the province of Santa Cruz (South).
The Court ruling must be sent to the Federal Oral Court 2 for its owner, Judge Jorge Gorini, to execute the sentence issued in 2022, which means that it would be detained in the next hours or days.
Fernández’s defense can ask that judge to grant the ex -president the benefit of house prison for being over 70 years, after having completed 72 last February.
The supreme ruling arrived eight days after the former president announced her candidacy as a legislator in legislative elections in the province of Buenos Aires, scheduled for September.
Having reached a decision before the official presentation date of the candidacies for said elections on July 19, the ex -president is now unable to compete in that election and any other.
The cause for which she was convicted, known as ‘Road’, investigated alleged irregularities in the award of 51 road works in the province of Santa Cruz to companies of businessman Lázaro Báez during the governments of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and Cristina Fernández (2007-2015).
The former president was sentenced in 2022 by fraudulent administration, although she was not arrested due to the fueros that she then had as vice president of the country and the pending instance of review by the Criminal Cassation Chamber.
In November 2024, Chamber IV of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation confirmed the conviction against Fernández, who resorted to the Supreme Court.
Speaking on Monday at the headquarters of his party, on the eve of the judges’ decision, the ex -president defined the Supreme Court as “Praetorian Guard of Economic Power” and said that there are political characters who, having worked against the interests of the country, walk “free” through the streets, so, for her, “being prey is a certificate of dignity.”
