“More than a ‘lawfare’ court, this court was a true firing squad that began from the incredible diatribe of prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola, who dedicated themselves to aggravating and insulting me,” he said.
Kirchner, 69, is accused of fraudulently awarding public works contracts during her two consecutive terms as president (from 2007 to 2015), and the Prosecutor’s Office requested 12 years in prison for her and permanent political disqualification.
In a 20-minute speech, Kirchner addressed the court that has been judging her since May 2019 from her Senate office virtually, just days after announcing her candidacy for vice president for the elections she won that year.
A dozen protesters covered the entrance gates to the courts with posters calling for jail for the former president, while a handful of her supporters expressed their support at the gates of the Senate.
In his speech, Kirchner accused the prosecutors of having “invented and distorted” the facts and assured that “it was shown that they were false, that they had not even existed.”
“They slandered, lied, insulted me and our government,” he insisted, estimating that the trial has “a disciplinary objective of the political class,” especially against its “political space,” that is, center-left Peronism.
President Alberto Fernández endorsed it shortly after. “I share the arguments of the vice president on the so-called Road Cause (…) When politics goes to court, justice goes out the window,” she wrote on Twitter.
– Verdict –
In this first instance trial, the court set the hearing in which the verdict will be announced for next December 6.
“Whatever the ruling is, for me it is innocent, I am going to be supporting my candidate. We are not going to allow them to imprison her,” Graciela Nadal, an administrative employee who went to the Senate to express her support for Kirchner, told AFP.
In the trial, in which there are 12 other defendants, Kirchner is accused of having favored the businessman Lázaro Báez, considered close to his family, in the awarding of public works tenders in the province of Santa Cruz (south).
“We are here supporting the independent and brave prosecutors,” Carmen Terrero, 65, told AFP in front of the courts. “We have long awaited a conviction from those who have stolen our future,” she said.
Top political figure in Argentina, as loved as reviled, Kirchner is protected by her privileges as vice president and president of the Senate until there is a final sentence in the Supreme Court.
Among the 12 remaining defendants are Julio de Vido, former Minister of Planning; José López, former Secretary of Public Works; and the businessman Lázaro Báez himself. In the process, the court heard 114 witnesses in 117 hearings.
After Kirchner’s exposure, the support hashtags #TodosConElla were a trend on Twitter in Argentina, in second place among the most important topics in the country, with more than 20,000 mentions, and #TodosConCristina, in seventh place, with some 3,600 tweets. while #CFKLadronaDeLaNaciónArgentina, ninth, had almost 2,600 mentions.
– Attack –
In his speech, Kirchner also criticized the court investigating the failed attack he suffered on September 1.
“When one is a victim, the figure of the illicit association does not exist. (But) a government democratically elected three times is, ”she ironized in reference to the legal figure with which she is accused.
The conviction request made by prosecutors Luciani and Mola in August led to a series of demonstrations in support of the vice president, with vigils by hundreds of her supporters outside her home in Buenos Aires.
But in the midst of these demonstrations, on September 1, a man among her supporters approached the vice president and fired a pistol inches from her face, which did not go off.
In the case there are three detainees accused of attempted murder: the attacker, his girlfriend and the alleged leader of the gang. Kirchner insists that his links with politics be investigated.
