The trial of Argentina’s vice president, Cristina Kirchner, on suspicion of corruption while she was president, opened the defense phase this Monday (1st) in a case that could lose her political rights if found guilty. She is accused of setting up an “illegal pyramid association” to embezzle public money from her late husband, former president Néstor Kirchner.
According to Argentina’s Public Ministry, prosecutor Diego Luciani said, considering the alleged illegal acts, “between 2003 and 2015 it has been proven that there was an illegal association with heads of state at the head of its operations.” It was started in government by Néstor Kirchner.
In this case, which includes 12 people, the investigation seeks to determine whether there is a direction in the public works concession in the state of Santa Cruz, the Kirchners’ political stronghold, in the south of the country. businessman Lázaro Báez and also whether it is overpriced.
According to the prosecutor, “there was an agreement between all parties involved to maintain a framework” for the conduct of work that “caused immeasurable losses to the State” and was “incomplete”.
However, upon the request of the Ministry of Justice, it was determined that the works were completed in the audit conducted by Vialidad Nacional, an organization affiliated to the Ministry of Public Works.
The Financial Information Unit, ignoring the allegations of the prosecutor’s office regarding the existence of fraudulent management and illegal organization crimes, found it “irresponsible to prepare an indictment”.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández, chief of staff in the Kirchner administrations, testified in person at the trial last February and supported the vice president, saying “there has never been an arbitrary distribution of funds”.
The MP will present the allegations at nine hearings scheduled for the next three weeks, followed by the defense’s turn.
The trial, which began on May 21, 2019, had to be adjourned temporarily in 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, where more than a hundred witnesses were present.
If found guilty, Kirchner will be politically disabled.
The 69-year-old vice president has been prosecuted for crimes allegedly committed during his two presidential terms, but he is still a defendant in five cases.
In October last year, the case in which Cristina Kirchner was accused of covering up those responsible for the 1994 attack on the Jewish association AMIA in Buenos Aires, which resulted in 85 dead and 300 injured, was closed.
source: Noticias
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