The Federal Court n°2 has granted former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner permission to serve her sentence for a corruption case under house arrest. The court notified Kirchner by a video call and rescinded the subpoena to the Federal Courts in Comodoro Py.

Last week, the Supreme Court confirmed Kirchner’s six-year prison sentence and lifelong ban on running for public office in a corruption case known as “Vialidad.” According to Argentina’s top court, the former president and her now-deceased husband, Néstor Kirchner, had irregularly awarded Lázaro Báez, a businessman close to her family, with public work contracts in the province of Santa Cruz.

Over the weekend, Peronist figures rallied around the 72-year-old, claiming the “largest march in recent history” would accompany Cristina on her route to surrender to the courts on Wednesday. However, on Tuesday night, it was confirmed after a meeting in the headquarters of the Peronist party that the march will take place in Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires’ main square, at 2:00 p.m.

Earlier on Tuesday, Prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola had rejected Cristina Kirchner’s request for a house arrest sentence. But the Federal Court’s decision means that her sentence begins immediately.

Kirchner’s house in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Constitución has been surrounded by activists and supporters every day since her conviction was confirmed. With so much mobilization — and some incidents in which alleged supporters broke into a building of a news channel — the judges’ decision to inform her of her house arrest via Zoom was expected.

On Friday, judges Jorge Gorini, Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu, and Andrés Basso received a judicial report that indicated Kirchner’s apartment in a building located on San José 1111, Constitución, was fit for her to carry out her sentence. On Tuesday, the Buenos Aires City government filed a presentation requesting that, if Kirchner was granted house arrest, she serve it in another location. They cited concerns of potential street blockades and security in the area, but has since been confirmed she will remain in Constitución.

The court’s 19-page decision, which the Herald had access to, said that they granted her house arrest for security reasons. Kirchner suffered an assassination attempt in 2022, and the judges considered that it would be hard to guarantee her safety in a penitentiary establishment without isolating her. They also mentioned that Kirchner is over 70 years old, the minimum age to ask for house arrest in the country. “

The court required Kirchner to wear an ankle monitor, rejecting her plea not to do so “in the absence of logical grounds and relevant arguments.” Left-wing political leader and lawyer Myriam Bregman said in a post on X that out of the 1,484 imprisoned repressors from the country’s last military dictatorship, only 5% have an ankle monitor. “In other words, incorporating an extra control through an electronic device in the case of Cristina Kirchner is a clear political offence on the part of the Court,” Bregman added.

The judges also ordered her to submit a list of her relatives, police detail, doctors who treat her regularly, and lawyers within 48 hours. Kirchner will have to request and justify visits from people not on that list, and the judiciary will have to authorize them.

But visits during house arrests in Argentina are not regulated by law. They are not even mentioned in articles 33 and 34 of the Liberty Deprivation Law, which focus specifically on house arrests. A source in the federal judicial system said, during house arrests, the only restriction is the freedom of movement — not communication.

The court also ordered Kirchner to “abstain from adopting behaviors that could disturb the neighborhood’s tranquility and/or alter the peaceful coexistence of its inhabitants.”

Outside the Peronist party headquarters, Quilmes mayor Mayra Mendoza, told the media that the judicial system forbade Kirchner from waving to her supporters from her balcony. However, that is not part of the court’s 19-page decision.

This article was updated at 19:50 p.m.