Argentina's former president sentenced for prison, banned from office
Argentina's highest court upheld a six-year prison sentence for former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a ruling Tuesday that permanently banned her from public office over the corruption conviction that found she had directed state contracts to a friend while she was the first lady and president.
The explosive Supreme Court ruling left Fernández, Argentina's charismatic yet deeply divisive ex-leader, subject to arrest and sent her supporters pouring into the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, and blocking major highways in protest.
The court asked Argentina's security ministry to set up a detention center to hold 72-year-old Fernández. Her defense lawyer Carlos Beraldi told C5N, a television station in Buenos Aires, that he had requested Fernández be allowed to serve her sentence in house arrest given her age.
The ruling bars Fernández from running in this fall's Buenos Aires legislative elections just days after she launched her campaign.
Fernández, who dominated Argentine politics for two decades and forged the country's main left-wing populist movement known as Kirchnerism, after her and her husband, former President Néstor Kirchner, rejects the charges as politically motivated.
During Fernández's eight years in office (2007–2015), Argentina expanded cash payments to the poor and pioneered major social assistance programs. But her governments funded the unbridled state spending by printing money, bringing Argentina notoriety for massive budget deficits and sky-high inflation.
Critics blamed Argentina's years of economic volatility on Fernández's policies, and outrage over successive economic crises and the country's bloated bureaucracy helped vault radical libertarian President Javier Milei to the presidency in late 2023.
The ruling dealt a severe blow to Milei's opposition during a crucial midterm election year. He celebrated the ruling, writing on social media: 'Justice. Period.'
Fernández was embroiled in multiple corruption scandals during her tenure. She was convicted in 2022 in this corruption case, which centered on 51 public contracts for public works awarded to companies linked to Lázaro Báez, a convicted construction magnate and friend of the presidential couple, at prices 20% above the standard rate in a scheme that cost the state tens of millions of dollars.
The high court rejected Fernández's request for the court to review her prison sentence in March. In a resolution obtained by The Associated Press, the court said that the prison sentence 'does nothing more than to protect our republican and democratic system.'
The Kirchner governments carried out 'an extraordinary fraudulent maneuver' that harmed the interests of the government and resulted in the embezzlement of roughly $70 million at the current exchange rate, the resolution said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
MTV Lebanon
6 hours ago
- MTV Lebanon
12 Jun 2025 20:44 PM US Supreme Court bolsters school disability protections
The U.S. Supreme Court sided on Thursday with a severely epileptic girl who is pursuing a disability discrimination lawsuit against a Minnesota public school district in a ruling that bolsters protections for students with disabilities in American schools. The 9-0 ruling threw out a lower court's decision that the Osseo Area Schools district had not discriminated against student Ava Tharpe in violation of two federal disability rights laws, as a lawsuit brought by her parents argued. Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the ruling, wrote that the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals erred by requiring students to satisfy a heightened legal standard for disability discrimination claims against schools than is typically required in other contexts. Federal appeals courts had been divided on whether disability discrimination claims arising in school settings require a heightened legal standard, meaning the stricter requirement had applied in some parts of the country but not others. The Supreme Court ruling harmonizes the standard nationally. Claims brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that are "based on educational services should be subject to the same standards that apply in other disability discrimination contexts," Roberts wrote. Roberts added that nothing in the relevant text of those laws suggests that "such claims should be subject to a distinct, more demanding analysis." Roman Martinez, a lawyer for Tharpe, called the ruling "a great win for Ava, and for children with disabilities facing discrimination in schools across the country." "We are grateful to the Supreme Court for its decision holding that these children should enjoy the same rights and protections as all other Americans with disabilities," Martinez said, adding that ruling would "protect the reasonable accommodations needed to ensure equal opportunity for all." Tharpe suffers from severe epilepsy that prevents her from attending school before noon due to morning seizures but permits her to engage in school work after that until about 6 p.m. At issue in the case was whether the legal standard applied by the 8th Circuit in rejecting Tharpe's discrimination claims was overly strict, and if a less stringent standard should have applied. When Tharpe and her family lived in Kentucky, her public school district tailored an education plan to her disability that included supplemental evening instruction at home, providing her with the same amount of school time as her peers. In 2015, her family moved to Minnesota, and Tharpe began attending the public schools in the Osseo Area Schools district in the suburbs of Minneapolis. For years, the district refused to accommodate a request by her parents that she receive evening instruction, leading Tharpe to receive fewer hours of education per day compared to her peers, according to court papers. Tharpe and her parents in 2021 filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Osseo district of discrimination under two federal disability laws. The lawsuit sought an accommodation from the district giving the girl the equivalent of a full school day, as well as monetary damages. U.S. District Judge Michael Davis in Minneapolis in 2023 ordered the school district to extend Tharpe's instructional day until 6 p.m. and to provide compensatory hours of instruction. But the judge rejected Tharpe's discrimination claims, ruling that her parents had failed to show that the school district satisfied a heightened legal standard of "bad faith or gross misjudgment." The 8th Circuit upheld the judge's ruling, prompting Tharpe and her parents to appeal her disability discrimination claims to the Supreme Court.
Ya Libnan
a day ago
- Ya Libnan
Former Lebanese economy minister is arrested on corruption charges
BY KAREEM CHEHAYEB A former Lebanese cabinet minister has been arrested and charged after an investigation into alleged financial crimes, judicial and security officials told The Associated Press. Former Economy Minister Amin Salam was detained after a three-hour interrogation about illegal use of ministry funds and use of suspicious contracts. The three judicial officials and one security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Lebanon has been trying to reform its battered economy, which for decades has been rife with profiteering. Salam has been charged with forgery, embezzlement, and misuse of public funds. Local media said it was related to alleged extortion of private insurance companies and using funds from a committee that supervises those companies for his own expenses. Salam did not directly comment. On Monday, however, he shared a video on social media that denied the reports and asserted that his use of those funds was to increase the committee's efficacy and transparency. Salam was economy minister for over three years. He was appointed in 2021 at a time when Lebanon's economy had plummeted and the country was plagued by severe power outages, fuel shortages and stark food inflation. (AP)
MTV Lebanon
2 days ago
- MTV Lebanon
Argentina's former president sentenced for prison, banned from office
Argentina's highest court upheld a six-year prison sentence for former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a ruling Tuesday that permanently banned her from public office over the corruption conviction that found she had directed state contracts to a friend while she was the first lady and president. The explosive Supreme Court ruling left Fernández, Argentina's charismatic yet deeply divisive ex-leader, subject to arrest and sent her supporters pouring into the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, and blocking major highways in protest. The court asked Argentina's security ministry to set up a detention center to hold 72-year-old Fernández. Her defense lawyer Carlos Beraldi told C5N, a television station in Buenos Aires, that he had requested Fernández be allowed to serve her sentence in house arrest given her age. The ruling bars Fernández from running in this fall's Buenos Aires legislative elections just days after she launched her campaign. Fernández, who dominated Argentine politics for two decades and forged the country's main left-wing populist movement known as Kirchnerism, after her and her husband, former President Néstor Kirchner, rejects the charges as politically motivated. During Fernández's eight years in office (2007–2015), Argentina expanded cash payments to the poor and pioneered major social assistance programs. But her governments funded the unbridled state spending by printing money, bringing Argentina notoriety for massive budget deficits and sky-high inflation. Critics blamed Argentina's years of economic volatility on Fernández's policies, and outrage over successive economic crises and the country's bloated bureaucracy helped vault radical libertarian President Javier Milei to the presidency in late 2023. The ruling dealt a severe blow to Milei's opposition during a crucial midterm election year. He celebrated the ruling, writing on social media: 'Justice. Period.' Fernández was embroiled in multiple corruption scandals during her tenure. She was convicted in 2022 in this corruption case, which centered on 51 public contracts for public works awarded to companies linked to Lázaro Báez, a convicted construction magnate and friend of the presidential couple, at prices 20% above the standard rate in a scheme that cost the state tens of millions of dollars. The high court rejected Fernández's request for the court to review her prison sentence in March. In a resolution obtained by The Associated Press, the court said that the prison sentence 'does nothing more than to protect our republican and democratic system.' The Kirchner governments carried out 'an extraordinary fraudulent maneuver' that harmed the interests of the government and resulted in the embezzlement of roughly $70 million at the current exchange rate, the resolution said.
