Cristina Fernández de Kirchner says she will present herself at the Comodoro Py federal courthouse next Wednesday (June 18) to begin serving her prison sentence.
The two-term former president and ex-president said in a post on social media platform that she would “comply with the law.”
“Next Wednesday, June 18, I will appear at Comodoro Py to comply with the law,” she said in a post on her official X account.
Argentina’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal against her conviction over the awarding of public works contracts during her 2007-2015 presidency, confirming a six-year prison sentence and lifetime ban from holding public office.
The decision rendered Fernández de Kirchner’s conviction and sentence definitive. The former president has been given five working days to present herself to the federal courts.
Fernández de Kichner denies the allegations against her. On Friday, she described the three Supreme Court justices who made the decision as “puppets.”
The 72-year-old veteran Peronist leader has requested to serve her sentence at her home in Buenos Aires – an arrangement available to over-70s.
Judicial sources told the Noticias Argentinas news agency on Friday that Fernández de Kirchner's apartment has been assessed by officials and approved as suitable for house arrest.
In her post on social media, the ex-president responded to critics who say she should be jailed by insisting that house arrest is “not a privilege.”
“On Tuesday, when the puppet Triumvirate masquerading as a fictional Supreme Court of Justice carried out the economic establishment’s order to ban me from public life, clamping down on the popular vote, my lawyers submitted a request to Oral Federal Court No. 2 for house arrest at my home in the Monserrat neighbourhood,” said the former president.
“This is not a privilege. On the contrary, it is due to strict personal security concerns. On one hand, there are institutional reasons. I served as president for two consecutive terms and, under the current regulations, I am entitled to lifelong security detail. It is mandatory and cannot be voluntarily declined. This protection is in place because of the risks faced by those who have held the nation’s highest office,” she added.
She continued: “In addition to these institutional reasons, there is another far more serious and decisive one for the court’s consideration: on September 1, 2022, while serving as vice-president, I was the target of an attempted assassination during the final stages of the political-electoral fabrication known as the ‘Vialidad’ case, which concluded on Tuesday.”
Finally, she concluded: “We are not the mafioso right that defies court orders, goes on the run for three years and, upon returning, gets shielded and acquitted by the Judicial Party. That is why, next Wednesday, June 18, I will appear at Comodoro Py to comply with the law, as I have always done.”
Her lawyer Carlos Beraldi said the request for house arrest is a request “for her to be treated just the same as anyone else in the same legal situation.”
Another lawyer, Gregorio Dalbón, has travelled to The Hague to file a complaint at the International Criminal Court, claiming Fernández de Kirchner is the victim of political persecution aimed at removing the leading opposition voice in Argentina to President Javier Milei.
Meanwhile, her supporters have kept up pressure on the streets and in the courts.
On Friday morning, a legal group called Abogados Solidarios filed an electoral protection action before the Electoral Court in La Plata. They asked the court to allow Fernández de Kirchner to stand as a candidate for provincial legislator in the Buenos Aires Province third electoral section in the September elections.
The claimant, Daniel Llermanos, argued that the court ruling “directly affects my fundamental right to choose the candidate of my preference” and urged the courts to suspend her disqualification before the July 19 deadline to finalise candidate lists.
His filing cites both national constitutional guarantees and international human rights law.
– TIMES/NA
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