Explainer: Keys to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s conviction

Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2015) will spend the next six years in detention with a lifelong ban on public office after the Supreme Court confirmed her conviction for corruption in the so-called ‘Vialidad’ case probing the awarding of fraudulent highway contract allocations.

What did this trial consist of? And what other legal woes does she face? Here, we break down the case against the polarising 72-year-old – the driving Peronist force on Argentina’s political left for the past two decades and leader of the opposition to President Javier Milei's budget-slashing agenda.

The state's case

Prosecutors accused Fernández de Kirchner of "fraudulent administration" and "illicit association" when adjudicating public works tenders in southern Santa Cruz Province during her two-term 2007-2015 presidency.

Most of the contracts went to Lázaro Báez, a business associate of Fernández de Kirchner and her late husband, ex-president Néstor Kirchner.

At her trial in 2022, the prosecution asked for a 12-year prison sentence and a perpetual ban on public office, triggering protests in several cities.

The trial began in 2019. Three years later, she was found guilty by a court of first instance of fraudulent administration but not illicit association, which is why she was convicted with a six-year prison sentence and the ban on political activity.

Both Kirchner and the prosecution, which pushed for a heavier sentence, appealed the verdict, but it was confirmed by an appeals court in 2024.

The defence and the attorney-general then appealed again, this time to the Supreme Court, the former requesting acquittal and the latter a stiffer sentence. The top tribunal on Tuesday dismissed both requests, thereby rendering the 2022 conviction and sentence definitive.

Fernández de Kirchner’s defence

The ex-president denies any wrongdoing. She has dubbed the case “lawfare,” saying it is designed to drive her out of politics and intimidate her centre-left Peronist party, the main opposition to the Milei government.

She argues that there is no evidence directly linking her to the contracts since the budgets were approved by Congress and distributed by office of the Cabinet chief, not by the President, and implemented by the Santa Cruz provincial government, where the works were carried out.

“This is not a trial against me, it is a trial against Peronism, against national and popular governments, against those of us who fight for improved wages, pensions and public works,” said Fernández de Kirchner in 2022, moments before her first conviction.

Judicial bias?

Fernández de Kirchner has accused several judges of political bias in the case, pointing the finger directly at her arch-foe and successor – centre-right leader Mauricio Macri.

Fernández de Kirchner assures that there is a “parallel state and judicial mafia” undermining democracy, alleging that the courts ignored legal standards to convict her in her 2022 address, a few hours after her first conviction when she was the veep in the Alberto Fernández presidency (2019-23).

The ex-president maintains that the ‘Vialidad’ case is tainted, pointing out that two of the three judges on the appeals court which confirmed her conviction in 2024 visited Macri during his 2015-2019 presidency while the investigation was ongoing.

She also accused them of being partial and asked for the prosecutor and two of the three judges on the court of first instance to be recused.

The prosecutor and one of the judges were also photographed playing football, apparently at a weekend residence owned by Macri while president. The images were leaked by the press.

The second judge was detected visiting the then (and current) Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich. The recusals were rejected.

Macri had backed Bullrich's failed 2023 presidential bid. She now serves in Milei’s government.

Cases pending

Fernández de Kirchner has been the target of more than a dozen investigations, four of which are ongoing.

She had been ordered to stand trial in the so-called "Memorandum" case, relating to an agreement she signed with Iran to investigate its suspected involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires.

In the “Memorandum” case, the ex-president faces trial for covering up the Iranians masterminding a terrorist attack on a Jewish community centre in 1994.

It remains to be judged whether there was a crime in 2013 when the then-head of state pushed through Congress approval of a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran in order to be able to interrogate outside Argentina those indicted for that bomb attack which caused 85 deaths and over 300 injured.

She is accused of seeking to cover up the crime.

In 2021 she was acquitted but two years later the Cassation Court revoked the decision, considering that the hypothesis of a crime also includes negotiations via channels parallel to the institutional, pursuing the illicit objective of granting impunity to the Iranians.

Two other corruption cases will have the ex-president in court, one in November and the other with the date yet to be fixed while a third is still at the investigation stage.