Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been sentenced to jail for corruption – but is currently immune from actually going behind bars because of her role.

A Buenos Aires court sentenced Ms Fernandez de Kirchner to six years and disqualified her from holding public office after she was found guilty of awarding public works to a contact who channelled the money back to her.

She denied the allegations and dismissed the court as a “firing squad” – adding: “This is a parallel state and judicial mafia.”

The powerful vice president will not face immediate prison time because her office gives her “temporary immunity”.

She is also expected to appeal the sentence, with the case likely to spend years winding through higher courts.

Technically, she could run for office while the appeals are pending, but she said on Tuesday she “would not be a candidate for anything” in next year’s scheduled general election.

Ms Fernandez de Kirchner served as president for two terms between 2007 and 2015 and commands crowds of supporters.

Body of girl, 5, found in concrete block used as bedside table by mother in Buenos Aires

World Cup’s greatest shocks – where does Argentina’s loss to Saudi Arabia at Qatar 2022 rank?

Saudi Arabia shock Argentina and Messi in one of biggest World Cup upsets ever

Thousands gathered in the streets after she survived an assassination attempt this year – and huge crowds also formed outside the courtroom where she was being sentenced on Tuesday.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

In the livestreamed sentencing, judges found her guilty as the “criminally responsible author of the crime of fraudulent administration to the detriment of the public administration”.

The court acquitted her on another count of “illicit association”.

Prosecutors had alleged public works contracts were handed to construction magnate and ally Lazaro Baez, who fed the money back to Fernandez de Kirchner and her late husband Nestor Kirchner, also a former president.

Baez was also sentenced to six years in prison.

“It is clear that the idea was always to condemn me,” Fernandez de Kirchner said in a live video on YouTube after the sentencing.

Argentina is on edge after a long economic crisis, with inflation heading towards 100%.

Related posts:

‘Two weeks of hell’: Desperation in India as oxygen ‘the price of gold’ Tokyo games could lead to emergence of ‘Olympic’ COVID variant, warns top medic Israel and Hamas to face investigation for possible war crimes following 11 days of fighting UK troops face questioning over woman’s 2012 murder in Kenya British cargo vessel blocked in French port as fishing rights row escalates Australia ex-captain to take ‘leave of absence’ from cricket after sexting scandal ‘Archbishop Tutu lit up the world’: Tributes paid at funeral for anti-apartheid hero As Russian forces move east, the people of Kramatorsk are getting out – but it’s not an easy task Dictator’s son wins back power in Philippines after family was forced into exile France hit by water restrictions as winter drought sparks fears over crop harvest Spain sacks spy chief after politicians’ mobile phones hacked and infected with spyware At least nine dead as protests continue over Mahsa Amini’s death at hands of Iran’s morality police