A judge in Argentina has ruled that former president Cristina Kirchner may serve her six-year fraud sentence under house arrest, easing concerns among her supporters who have been maintaining a vigil outside her Buenos Aires residence, prepared to protest had she been imprisoned.
The decision follows a ruling by Argentina’s Supreme Court last week, which upheld the 72-year-old’s conviction for fraud and confirmed both her prison sentence and lifelong ban from holding public office. This verdict exhausted all avenues for appeal after her 2022 conviction for directing fraudulent public works contracts to a business associate during her presidency from 2007 to 2015.
Kirchner was given a deadline of Wednesday to surrender to authorities to begin her sentence. She had requested house arrest, citing provisions in Argentine law that allow for convicted individuals over the age of 70 to serve their time at home. In her request, she also highlighted security concerns, referring to her entitlement as a former head of state to lifelong police protection, which she would not receive in prison. The former leader survived an assassination attempt in September 2022.
However, prosecutors argued that there were no valid medical or personal grounds for house arrest, which they stressed should remain an exceptional measure. Despite this, the court permitted Kirchner’s request, while agreeing to the prosecutors’ condition that she wear an electronic monitoring bracelet while serving her sentence, which began on Tuesday.
Reacting to the decision, her lawyer Gregorio Dalbon declared on social media platform X: “THE LAW PREVAILED. THE PEOPLE PREVAILED.”
Kirchner, a dominant left-wing figure in Argentine politics for two decades, continues to enjoy strong support. Hundreds of her backers have gathered continuously outside her apartment since the Supreme Court ruling, and were preparing for mass demonstrations on Wednesday had the outcome been different. In 2022, her initial conviction prompted widespread protests, some of which ended in clashes with police.
Kirchner and her supporters insist that the case was politically motivated, designed to discredit her career and dismantle her legacy of protectionist economic policies and extensive social welfare programmes. She has been a vocal critic of current president Javier Milei’s austerity agenda, accusing the Supreme Court of being “puppets acting on orders from above.”
Kirchner becomes the second Argentine leader since the country’s return to democracy in 1983 to be sentenced to prison. The first was Carlos Saul Menem, convicted of arms trafficking, who never served time due to senatorial immunity.
Prior to her conviction, Kirchner had intended to run for a seat in the Buenos Aires provincial legislature in September, a position that would have granted her parliamentary immunity for its duration.
She first emerged as a political heavyweight alongside her late husband, Néstor Kirchner, who served as president before her. After completing two presidential terms herself, she returned to office as vice president from 2019 to 2023, serving under the previous centre-left administration before Javier Milei’s government came to power.
