Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her son Máximo, a national deputy, go on trial Friday, October 23, on money-laundering and illicit-association charges, after a higher court ordered two cases against them tried together.
A trial court has let both follow the opening session by video instead of appearing at Comodoro Py, the federal courthouse in Buenos Aires. The permission covers only that first hearing, at 10 a.m., which is devoted to reading out the accusations. Later hearings must be attended in person. Cristina Kirchner is serving a six-year fraud sentence under house arrest in her Buenos Aires apartment in a separate case, and her lawyers argued that moving her would require a major security operation. Máximo’s lawyers cited his duties as a deputy. Two of the three judges agreed; one dissented.
Prosecutors accuse the family of laundering money through two companies, Hotesur, which runs hotels, and Los Sauces, a real estate firm. They allege the companies channeled kickbacks from public works contracts awarded to businessman Lázaro Báez, who paid for hotel rooms that were never used. Judges dismissed the case in 2021, and the federal court of cassation, the country’s top criminal appeals court, reopened it in 2023. The other defendants include businessmen and former officials.
The trial court had planned two separate trials, Los Sauces on October 23 and Hotesur on March 19, 2027. On Tuesday, the cassation court’s first chamber overturned that split by 2 votes to 1, siding with prosecutors, who argued that splitting the case would not speed it up. Judge Alejandro Slokar dissented, saying the reversal intruded on a power that belongs exclusively to the trial court.