Argentina’s former president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is scheduled to stand trial on Thursday, November 6, in a fresh corruption case linked to allegations that she received millions in bribes during her time in office.
Kirchner, 72, is currently serving a six-year sentence for fraud under house arrest after a June conviction. She previously led Argentina from 2007 to 2015 and later served as vice president between 2019 and 2023. The new proceedings come as her political faction, the Peronist movement, continues to grapple with a heavy defeat in last month’s midterm elections to President Javier Milei’s right-wing coalition.
The trial is tied to the widely publicized “notebooks” scandal, based on handwritten logs kept by a government chauffeur. The chauffeur claims he transported bags of cash allegedly paid as bribes by businessmen seeking government contracts between 2003 and 2015, spanning the administrations of both Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Kirchner.
Prosecutors allege that Kirchner led a criminal network that exchanged state contracts for illegal payments. A total of 87 individuals, including a former federal minister and several government aides, are also facing charges.
Kirchner denies any wrongdoing, calling the case politically motivated and part of a broader effort to remove her from the political scene. She has been under house arrest, monitored electronically, since her fraud conviction.
It is not yet confirmed whether she will attend the hearing in person or participate via video link from her Buenos Aires residence. If found guilty, she could face an additional prison term of six to ten years. Her lawyers have questioned the credibility of the chauffeur’s notebooks, arguing that the records were altered more than 1,500 times and should not be accepted as reliable evidence.
