The vice president has also served two terms as president and commands large throngs of supporters. To protest her conviction, thousands gathered in the streets.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, vice president of Argentina, has been convicted of corruption but is temporarily exempt from serving her sentence due to her position.
A judge in Buenos Aires condemned Ms. Fernandez de Kirchner to six years in prison and barred her from holding public office after she was found guilty of granting public works contracts to a contact who returned the money to her.
She refuted the accusations and referred to the court as a “firing squad,” adding, “This is a parallel state and legal mafia.”
The strong vice president will not be arrested immediately due to her position’s “temporary immunity.”
She is also anticipated to file an appeal, and the case is likely to take years to wind its way through higher courts.
Technically, she may run for office while the appeals are pending, but she stated on Tuesday that she “would not be a candidate for anything” in the main election slated for next year.
Between 2007 and 2015, Ms. Fernandez de Kirchner served as president for two terms and draws large crowds of supporters.
Thousands gathered in the streets when she survived an assassination attempt this year, and large crowds also gathered outside the courts on Tuesday, when she was sentenced.
Judges declared her guilty as the “criminally responsible author of the crime of fraudulent administration to the harm of the public administration” during the live-streamed sentence.
The court found her not guilty on a second count of “illicit association.”
Prosecutors stated that contracts for public works were awarded to construction mogul and loyalist Lazaro Baez, who funneled the money back to Fernandez de Kirchner and her late husband, also a former president, Nestor Kirchner.
Baez was also given a six-year prison term.
“It is evident that the intention was always to condemn me,” Fernandez de Kirchner stated in a live YouTube video following her conviction.
Argentina is on edge due to a protracted economic crisis, with inflation approaching 100 percent.
