According to the former president’s allies, the six-year sentence for corruption was riddled with “irregularities”
14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2024 — A group of long time allies, among them the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, signed a statement in support of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. In this statement, they denounced the political persecution, in the media and in the judicial system, that they maintained the ex-president was suffering, accused of corruption and sentenced to six years in jail besides being barred from ever holding a public office again
According to Prensa Latina, the signature of Díaz-Canel joins those of the presidents Xiomara Castro of Honduras and Luis Arce of Bolivia and those of former leaders Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Ernesto Samper of Colombia as well as Alvaro Garcia Linera, former vice-president of Bolivia among other officeholders
The allies established that the purpose of the conviction of ex-president Fernandez de Kirchner (2007-2015 ) was the elimination of her from any form of public life. “This action is part of a plan of systematic persecution, designed by the public sectors of the judicial system and the media, whose goal is to plant hateful and violent speech” they emphasized.
According to the document, from the beginning and during the process, the effort was riddled with procedural and legal irregularities that caused a serious impact on the constitutional guarantees granted to the ex president, especially her right to a defense during the trial.
The signatories maintained that with this case, the prosecution of Fernandez de Kirchner is moved forward “by the means of hegemonic communication media” and they cite “the attempted assassination on September 1, 2022” as its “most dramatic consequence.”
The 2nd Federal Oral Court convicted Fernandez de Kirchner in December of 2022 for the crime of fraudulent administration of public funds with regard to the administration of highways . As part of the process, irregularities in the grants for 51 highway works to companies of the businessman Lazaro Baez during the administration of the late Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) and that of his wife and successor Cristina Fernandez en the province of Santa Cruz, the political seat of “Kirchner-ism.”
The high tribunal, composed of Mariano Borinsky, Gustavo Hornos, and Diego Barroetaveña made the decision to sentence Cristina Elizabeth Fernandez de Kirchner to six years in prison and permanent barring from holding public office in considering her indictable for the crime of “Fraudulent administration to the detriment of public administration.”
In response to the sentencing the ex-president said: “when you are a woman, everything that they do to you is 20 times more difficult and if they punish me for something, it is not only for all that I have done but also because I am a woman. They can’t stand (they won’t admit) to argue with a woman and that they cannot be right.
Translated by William Fitzhugh
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