Ex-Argentina president goes on trial in new corruption case

Argentine ex-president Cristina Kirchner, who is serving a six-year fraud sentence under house arrest, goes on trial Thursday in a separate case for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes.

The centre-left Kirchner, a dominant and polarising figure in Argentine politics for over two decades, served two terms from 2007-2015.

Her latest trial comes as her ailing Peronist movement — named after iconic post-war leader Juan Peron — reels from its stinging defeat at the hands of right-wing President Javier Milei’s party in last month’s midterm elections.

Milei has hailed the result as a vindication of his radical free-market agenda, which the Peronists, champions of state intervention in the economy, vehemently oppose.

The so-called “notebooks” scandal revolves around records kept by a government chauffeur of cash bribes he claims to have delivered from businessmen to government officials between 2003-2015.

Kirchner, 72, was first lady from 2003-2007, when her late husband Nestor Kirchner was president.

Kirchner is accused of leading a criminal enterprise that took bribes from businesspeople in return for the awarding of state contracts.

Eighty-seven people are accused in the case, including a former minister and several junior ministers.

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Kirchner, who was placed under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor in June after being convicted of “fraudulent administration” as president, maintains she is the victim of a politically-inspired judicial hounding.

It was not clear whether she would appear at the trial by video-conference from her home in Buenos Aires.

She faces between six and 10 years in prison if convicted at the end of what is expected to be a lengthy trial.

Her lawyers have cast doubt on the credibility of the entries in the chauffeur’s notebooks, saying they were changed over 1,500 times.

AFP