Argentine VP Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner sentenced to 6 years in prison and life disqualification for corruption 

Cristina Fernández was sentenced to six years in prison and life disqualification from holding public office after being found guilty of defrauding the state and committing the crime of illicit association.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of the effects of the crime, which consists of a sum of 84,835 million pesos (US$482 million).

She is the first vice president to be convicted of corruption while in office.

The decision against the incumbent Vice-President was taken by the Federal Oral Court N°2 after three and a half years of oral proceedings. The prosecution had requested a 12-year prison sentence for illicit association and defrauding the state.

"We are certain that, through the processing of fifty-one public bidding processes for the construction of road works on national and provincial routes in the province of Santa Cruz, between the years 2003 and 2015, an extraordinary fraudulent maneuver took place that harmed the pecuniary interests of the national public administration under the terms and conditions established by criminal law," the court held in a brief statement after reading the verdict.

During the trial of Cristina Kirchner and 12 other defendants for public road works in Santa Cruz—a corruption scheme developed between 2003 and 2015—the court also imposed a 6-year prison sentence for Lázaro Báez, former Secretary of Public Works José López and former head of the National Roads Authority Nelson Periotti.

The other convictions were also against José López (6 years in prison), Nelson Pieriotti (6 years), Mauricio Collareda (4 years), Raúl Daruich (3 years and 6 months), Raúl Pavesi (4 years and 6 months), Juan Carlos Villafañe (5 years) and José Raúl Santibáñez (4 years).

Julio de Vido, Abel Fatala, Héctor Garro, and Carlos Santiago Kirchner were acquitted.

The 69-year-old former president, who in principle enjoys immunity until December 2023 due to her position in the Executive, has the right to appeal the sentence before higher courts.

"This conviction is not a conviction by the laws of the Constitution or the Penal Code," Kirchner said minutes after the verdict was read. 

According to prosecutor Diego Luciani, the total amount defrauded from state coffers amounted to $1 billion during her two presidential terms, between 2007 and 2015. 

The contracts were awarded to businessman Lázaro Báez, a personal friend of former

President Néstor Kirchner, who went from being a bank teller to becoming a construction czar, reported El País. 

This is a developing story.