Former Argentinean President Indicted for Corruption

Published: 28 December 2016

kirchner

Cristina Ferandez de Kirchner (Photo: Casa Rosada, CC BY-SA 2.0)

By Igor Spaic

Former Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was indicted on Tuesday in a case involving corruption in public works.

Kirchner, who was in power between 2007 and 2015, was charged with illicit association and fraudulent administration alongside former planning minister Julio de Vido, former public works secretary Jose Lopez and businessman Lazaro Baez. The group are alleged to have conspired between 2003 and 2015 to steer public works contracts towards Baez's construction company Austral Construcciones.

Federal judge Julian Ercolini also ordered the freezing of US$ 643 million of Kirchner's assets.

Kirchner has denied any wrongdoing, tweeting that the charges leveled against her were of the type “used by all dictatorships to persecute opposition leaders.”

Kirchner was indicted in May this year on charges that she manipulated the country’s central bank in order to shore up the peso.

A judge is also reportedly seeking to revive an investigation into whether Kirchner played a role in a cover-up on behalf of Iranians believed to be behind the 1994 bombing of the Argentinian Israelite Mutual Association, which killed 85 people.