Argentina’s supreme court ends ex-president career with final verdict

Argentina’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, upheld a six-year prison sentence against former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

According reports, the court also confirmed a lifetime ban on her from holding public office.

The ruling marks the final chapter in Kirchner’s decades-long political career.

Her lawyers failed to secure another appeal.

“The sentence stands,” declared the court, citing overwhelming evidence of fraud.

Kirchner, 72, led Argentina from 2007 to 2015

She then returned as vice president from 2019 to 2023.

She was convicted in 2022 for fraudulent administration of public works contracts.

Prosecutors said she awarded contracts to allies in her stronghold, Santa Cruz.

They linked the deals to a close business associate of her and her late husband, Nestor Kirchner.

Despite the ruling, Kirchner can request house arrest due to her age.

She has five days to surrender to authorities.

Kirchner called the ruling politically motivated.

Speaking outside the Justicialist Party headquarters, she blasted the court as “puppets.”

She accused the judges of taking orders from President Javier Milei’s government.

Hundreds of supporters gathered outside the party building crying in a major roads blocked protest.

Milei, Kirchner’s political nemesis, praised the verdict.

“Justice. End,” he wrote on X.

Kirchner’s sentence triggered anger in leftist circles but satisfaction on the right.

Political observers say the ruling seals her political downfall.

She had planned to run for Buenos Aires provincial legislature in September.

Historians note the symbolic fall of a powerful political dynasty.

Cristina and Nestor Kirchner once commanded enormous influence.

She remains Argentina’s second ex-president to receive a prison sentence since 1983.

The first, Carlos Menem, avoided jail due to senatorial immunity.

Kirchner barely survived an assassination attempt in 2022.

A gunman pulled the trigger at point-blank range, but the weapon jammed.

She claims her enemies want her “in prison or dead.”

In March, the U.S. banned her from entry over corruption allegations.

Despite the ruling, some analysts say jail may rally her base while others argue her political relevance is fading fast.

“She is not the Cristina of 2019,” analyst Sergio Berensztein told AFP.

But her movement remains vocal.

“We will return,” vowed party member Daniel Dragoni.

The court’s decision sets a precedent for accountability in Argentina’s democracy.

Kirchner now exits the stage she once dominated, branded by supporters as a martyr and by critics as corrupt.-

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