BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – An Argentine federal prosecutor on Monday sought a 12-year prison sentence for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the country’s former president and current vice president, on corruption charges related to public works.
Prosecutor Diego Luciani accused Fernández de Kirchner, still an influential voice on the left of the ruling Peronist party, of defrauding the state and participating in a scheme to divert public funds while he was president between 2007 and 2015.
The ruling will be known in months, according to local media, although Fernández de Kirchner could appeal it to higher courts, which would take years to reach a final ruling.
“This is probably the biggest corruption maneuver the country has ever known,” Luciani said in arguing the sentence, which has fueled new political tension in the South American country.
On Twitter, Fernández de Kirchner, who testified in court in 2019, said she was facing a “media judicial firing squad” and “not a constitutional court.”
The former president added that she was not given the opportunity to testify about new elements of the case and that she will present her defense on social media this Tuesday.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández condemned the decision on Twitter, describing the decision in a statement as a case of judicial persecution.
“None of the facts attributed to the former president have been proven,” the statement said.
The prosecutor also requested a lifetime ban on Fernández de Kirchner from holding public office.
Later on Monday, local police dispersed dozens of protesters outside Kirchner’s home in the capital Buenos Aires, with camps both against and in support of the prosecutor’s request, local television showed.
The investigation seeks to establish whether she and other officials in her administration favored companies owned by businessman Lazaro Baez in bidding processes for dozens of public works in the southern region of Patagonia, many of which were priced excessive or were not completed.
Many experts suspect that the allegedly diverted capital would have returned to the hands of the Kirchner family through their companies.
(Reporting by Nicholas Misculin and Jorge Otaola; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Stephen Coates and Sam Holmes)