Argentina’s VP Fernández Guilty in $1B fraud, President Alberto Fernández: 'She Was Innocent'

JAKARTADAILY.ID – Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison and a lifetime ban from holding public office for fraud.

Cristina Fernández was found guilty of a fraud scheme that embezzled $1 billion through public works projects during her presidency.

According to bellinghamherald.com, a three-judge panel on Tuesday found the Peronist leader guilty of fraud but rejected a charge of running a criminal organization, for which the sentence could have been 12 years in prison.

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It was the first time an Argentine vice president has been convicted of a crime while in office.

Fernández lashed out at the verdict, describing herself as the victim of a “judicial mafia.” But she also later announced that she would not run next year for the presidency, a post she previously held from 2007-2015.

The sentence isn’t firm until appeals are decided, a process that could take years.

She will remain immune from arrest meanwhile. Fernández's supporters vowed to paralyze the country with a nationwide strike.

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President Alberto Fernández, who is not related to his vice president, said on Twitter that she was innocent and that her conviction is “the result of a trial in which the minimum forms of due process were not taken care of.”

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