BUENOS AIRES.- The Federal Court of Criminal Cassation ratified the ruling of the Oral Court in the Roads case, a network of corruption in public works in Argentina. In December 2022, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had been sentenced and now this court ratifies that sentence.
The sentence of six years in prison was confirmed imposed on former president Cristina Kirchner for “aggravated fraudulent administration.” The cassation ruling also includes the confiscation of assets and funds linked to irregularities in public works, an amount that amounts to 85 billion pesos.
The judges confirmed that there was “a fraudulent maneuver that significantly damaged the accounts of the national State.”
Similarly, the Criminal Cassation Chamber ratified the disqualification from holding public office against the former president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The ruling can be appealed by all parties for the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to intervene and they have 10 business days to do so. It will be the highest court that resolves the file and if it ratifies the decision, this latest ruling will be final and in a position to be executed, although the Court does not have a deadline to rule.
exactly 16 years ago a criminal complaint He targeted Néstor Kirchner’s businesses and the public works delivered to Lázaro Báez. At that time Cristina Kirchner did not appear in the accusation, but an extension included the name of the two-time president. The file had been activated with new evidence when she left power.
The sentence against her came when she was vice president. A court convicted her to six years in prison for defrauding the State, through the works awarded to Austral Construcciones in Santa Cruz from 2003 to 2015.
“I am going to share an activity with Mayor Mariel Fernández and 400 women,” he posted on social networks. The former president had support at the door of the courts with a public class led by the Minister of Justice of the province of Buenos Aires, Juan Martín Mena and the social leader Juan Grabois after hearing the news.
The details of the sentence
The judges highlighted that the maneuver occurred with the incorporation of a company in the construction sector “without any experience” despite which “he formed a group of companies, which allowed him to win numerous public works tenders in the province of Santa Cruz, simulating a competition that he did not really have (as an example, only between 2007 and “In 2008 it received twenty-three contracts.”
The judges highlighted that the tenders that Báez’s companies obtained were given with “numerous irregularities”. It was demonstrated that a specific contracting modality was selected, becoming the rule for the province of Santa Cruz what was an exception for the others.
This allowed the cartelization of public works in the aforementioned province in favor of a group of companies that responded to the aforementioned Báez,” they cited as an example. Also that for non-compliance was not sanctioned and that it had a preferential payment channel.
In a 1,541-page rulingChamber IV of Cassation also confirmed the sentences of Báez (6 years in prison), of the former Secretary of Public Works, José López (6 years); of the former head of the National Highway Directorate, Nelson Periotti (6 years), of Juan Carlos Villafañe (5 years), of Raúl Gilberto Pavesi (4 years and 6 months), of José Raúl Santibañez (4 years), of Mauricio Collareda (4 years) and Raúl Osvaldo Daruich (3 years and 6 months).
He also confirmed the acquittals of the former Minister of Federal Planning, Julio De Vido; the former Undersecretary of Public Works, Abel Fatala; of the former Santa Cruz Highway official, Héctor Garro; and Carlos Kirchner, cousin of the late former president Néstor Kirchner and former Federal Planning official. Carlos Kirchner’s acquittal was confirmed due to prescription.
Cristina Kirchner’s conviction was confirmed by the judges Mariano Borinsky and Diego Barroetaveña while Gustavo Hornos voted to add the crime of illicit association to the former president as the Prosecutor’s Office had requested.
