Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was sentenced to six years in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of fraud. 

After a three-year trial in which Ms Kirchner was accused of diverting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded contracts to a business associate to build roads in Patagonia, South America, a panel of three judges in Buenos Aires, the country’s capital, announced the verdict on national television. 

“We are certain that an extraordinary fraudulent manoeuvre took place that harmed the pecuniary interests of the national public administration under the terms and conditions established by criminal law,” the panel said. 

Ms Kirchner is one of Argentina’s most powerful political figures, having been president of the South American country between 2007 to 2015 and before that as the first lady during her husband’s tenure from 2003 to 2007. 

The 69-year-old who simultaneously assumed the office of the vice president and senator in 2019 has now been banned from holding public office after she was exposed for running a fraud scheme that directed contracts of public roadworks to a family friend while she was the first lady and later as president. 

Prosecutors had sought 12 years against her, but the six years won in court will not stick easily as Ms Krichber doubles down efforts to file appeals against the ruling. 

Analysts said the case would be ultimately decided in the country’s Supreme Court.