Cristina Fern ndez de Kirchner, Argentina's vice-president and former president, has been jailed for six years in prison and given a lifelong ban on holding public office after being found guilty in a $1 billion fraud case related to public works.
Fern ndez, who was president of Argentina for two terms between 2007 and 2015, was found guilty on Tuesday, though she is unlikely to serve any prison time soon as she has immunity thanks to her government roles and is expected to launch a lengthy appeals process that could take years.
A three-judge panel rejected a charge of running a criminal organization, for which the sentence could have been 12 years in prison. The sentence marked the first time an Argentine vice president has been convicted of a crime while in office.
Fern ndez said the charges against her were politically motivated in a live stream after the verdict was announced. She said that the judiciary's actions are a parallel state and mafia.
The verdict is certain to deepen the fissures in Argentina, where the 69-year-old populist has dominated the political landscape and recently survived a failed assassination attempt after her assailant s gun was apparently jammed. Fern ndez compared her judges to a firing squad last month. Fern ndez was accused of ordering 51 public works contracts in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz to be awarded to a company belonging to L zaro B ez, a friend and business associate of Fern ndez de Kirchner and her husband N stor Kirchner, who was president of Argentina from 2003 -- 2007.
Prosecutors said that the B ez company was created to embezzle revenues through improperly bid projects that suffered from cost overruns and were never completed. They said the company disappeared after the Kirchners were in power for 12 years.