Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to Go on Trial on Financial Mismanagement Charges

Argentina’s ex-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner should stand trial on charges of financial mismanagement, a judge has ruled on March 23.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, 64, is accused of fraudulently administering state funds in 2015.

Former economy minister Axel Kiciloff and the former head of the central bank have also been charged.

Cristina Fernandez, who governed from 2007 to 2015, said the case was politically motivated.

She already faces unrelated investigations into alleged corruption.

Judge Claudio Bonadio said a total of 15 people would go in trial in connection with the case.

Cristina Fernandez is accused of ordering the central bank to sell dollars on the futures market at artificially low prices ahead of a widely expected devaluation of the Argentine peso.

This, the allegation goes, caused Argentina to lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

Cristina Fernandez is also being investigated over alleged corruption but the dollar futures case would be the first to reach the trial phase.

She won the presidential election in 2007, succeeding her husband, Nestor Kirchner, in the top office.

In 2011, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was re-elected by a landslide.

Unable under Argentine law to stand for a third consecutive term, she backed Daniel Scioli in the 2015 election campaign.

However, voters chose the conservative mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, instead.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner says she has been the target of “political persecution” since Mauricio Macri came to power.