The Argentine Supreme Court confirms trial against Cristina Fernández for alleged money laundering

Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner suffered a new setback in justice on Monday with the Supreme Court’s decision that she face an oral trial in a case for money laundering and illicit association.

The highest court of Argentina rejected the appeals presented by the former president’s defense and confirmed the decision of a previous judicial instance, which had already determined that Fernández de Kirchner be prosecuted for a case that investigates the businesses of the Kirchner family companies with the State.

In this judicial file, his son, Deputy Máximo Kirchner, and twenty other people, including several businessmen, are also prosecuted for similar crimes.

With the unanimous decision of the four members of the Supreme Court, the former president will be tried for the alleged crime of money laundering carried out through family businesses belonging to the Kirchner family in exchange for contracts related to the State.

According to the accusation, the events would have occurred during the governments of Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2015) and her husband, the late former president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007).

This is the second judicial setback in just two weeks for the former president, who faces other judicial investigations and was already sentenced in 2022 to six years in prison for fraudulent administration during her mandate, a sentence that she has appealed and is still awaiting the resolution of the Supreme Court.

At the beginning of the month, the highest Argentine court also determined that Fernández de Kirchner must face an oral trial for the signing of a judicial cooperation agreement with Iran in 2013, supposedly promoted to clarify the attack against a Jewish mutual in Buenos Aires in 1994 but which, according to Argentine justice, actually aimed to free Tehran of blame.

As in the case known as the Pact with Iran, the judges ruled on Monday that the former president is not facing a “final sentence,” which is why they rejected the extraordinary appeal presented by her defense to avoid a new trial.

“The defense has not been able to demonstrate a current, concrete and real grievance, different from the mere fact that the submission of the appellants to the criminal process implies, which is why the appealed sentence does not constitute a final sentence nor is it comparable to such,” indicates the decision published by the court.

The complaint against the former president, two of her children and several businessmen was brought to oral trial in 2018, but in 2021 a court dismissed all the accused. However, at the end of last year the decision was again revoked by the Court of Cassation, which ordered the trial to proceed with the exception of Florencia Kirchner, daughter of the Peronist leader and for whom the dismissal was confirmed.

The investigation into Fernández de Kirchner originated during the government of conservative Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), when prosecutor Guillermo Marijuán charged the then former president based on the declaration of repentance by a financier who involved her in alleged money laundering maneuvers. money.

The same prosecutor later indicated that he had not obtained evidence to support the accusation and that the hundreds of contacts between Fernández de Kirchner and Lázaro Báez, a businessman close to the former president who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering, were not enough. to determine that the former vice president had been involved in a money laundering operation led by the businessman.

At 71 years old, Fernández de Kirchner has just assumed the presidency of the Peronist Justicialista Partythe main opposition force to the government of far-right Javier Milei, and is expected to aspire to a seat in Congress in the 2025 elections, when senators and national deputies will be elected. However, if the conviction for fraudulent administration is ratified by the Supreme Court, she will be disqualified for life from holding public office.

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