Argentina's Fernandez faces graft trial after election race drama

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Argentina's populist former leader Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, fresh from shaking up the country's national election race with a vice presidential bid, will be at the center of more drama on Tuesday as a corruption trial against her gets underway.

The trial will address multiple corruption allegations dating to Fernandez's two terms as president from 2007 to 2015, including accusations she received kickbacks from construction companies to award projects for which the state paid exorbitant amounts.

The allegations, which Fernandez strongly denies, could cast a shadow over the divisive leader's political push as she looks to win over the more moderate wing of the Peronist opposition to take on center-right incumbent Mauricio Macri in elections set for October.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner outside her apartment as she leaves for a court in Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 13, 2018. /VCG Photo

Fernandez surprised the nation on Saturday by saying she would run as vice president in elections later this year.

A leftist and militant Peronist, Fernandez had been seen as the top potential challenger to Macri.

"It's not a move anyone thought would happen," said Carlos Fara, a Buenos Aires-based political consultant, noting that Fernandez would be very influential if her running mate won the October election.

Argentinian President Mauricio Macri delivers a speech at the Casa Rosada Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires, March 18, 2019. /VCG Photo

Macri is increasingly under fire amid a biting recession and inflation that has hurt the market-friendly leader in the polls.

"The situation of the people and the country is dramatic, and I'm convinced this arrangement we're proposing best reflects what is needed in Argentina at this time," Fernandez said in a nearly 13-minute video on her official Twitter account.

The charges against her could end in a sentence of up to 10 years in jail, should she be found guilty of leading a graft ring that defrauded the state of millions of dollars.

(Cover: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner waves as she leaves the Federal Justice building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 18, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Reuters