Ex-Argentina president faces trial for corruption

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Argentina's former President Cristina Kirchner, who has been accused of accepting tens of millions of U.S. dollars in bribes during her term in office, will go on trial for corruption, a federal court confirmed on Thursday.

Kirchner, 65, is accused of running a criminal network in relation to the infamous "corruption notebooks" scandal - revealed through the meticulous records of millions of U.S. dollars in bribes paid by businessmen to government officials kept by a ministerial chauffeur.

The court accepted a request by judge Claudio Bonadio that Kirchner, now a senator, be held in pre-trial detention, but her partial parliamentary immunity prevents that from happening.

That immunity protects her from imprisonment, but not from prosecution.

Argentine Federal Police officers take part in a raid at former Argentine President and current senator Cristina Kirchner's vacation home in El Calafate, Santa Cruz province, Argentina, August 25, 2018. /VCG Photo

The 65-year-old senator denies any wrongdoing and claims the charges are politically motivated.

In August, the Senate voted to partially lift her immunity so that investigators could search her three luxury homes, but unless it is entirely lifted, she cannot be jailed even if found guilty.

The court also seized 1.5 billion pesos (38 million U.S. dollars) worth of her assets and ordered former planning minister Julio de Vido, now in pre-trial detention, to be prosecuted.

Several other former junior ministers and businessmen were ordered to be released from detention but will still be tried on bribery charges.

Supporters of former Argentine president and now senator Cristina Kirchner demonstrate as Argentina's Federal Police raids one of her properties in Recoleta neighbourhood, Buenos Aires, August 23, 2018. /VCG Photo

Both Kirchner and her late husband and predecessor as president, Nestor, are suspected of having received millions of dollars in bribes from businessmen in exchange for large-scale public works contracts.

The payments were documented by ministerial chauffeur Oscar Centeno in notebooks seized by investigators.

More than a dozen former government officials and 30 top businessmen are implicated in the case.

Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli has said a total of 160 million U.S. dollars in bribes was handed over between 2005 and 2015.

The scandal has engulfed practically the entire construction industry in Argentina, even involving the family of current President Mauricio Macri.

Source(s): AFP