Court in Buenos Aires sentences Fernando Sabag Montiel and accomplice over 2022 incident in which gun was pointed at former president but did not go off

A court in Argentina has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of attempting to kill former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The court in Buenos Aires also sentenced the man’s accomplice to eight years in prison, capping a dramatic case that has captivated the country since 2022, when the main defendant, Fernando Sabag Montiel, squeezed through a crowd outside the ex-president’s home, thrust a loaded gun at her face and pulled the trigger.

The gun did not go off. Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina’s vice-president at the time, was unharmed.

The botched assassination attempt provoked street protests from Fernández de Kirchner’s diehard supporters as well as scepticism and conspiracy theories from her fervent critics.

Among Latin America’s best-known politicians with three decades at the forefront of Argentinian politics and two terms as president from 2007 to 2015, Fernández de Kirchner is a deeply polarising figure whose brand of leftwing populism brought Argentina infamy for its runaway inflation and enormous fiscal deficits.

Convicted of corruption for allegedly steering public roadworks contracts to a friend’s company, Fernández de Kirchner, 72, was sentenced earlier this year to six years in prison. Citing her age and safety fears since the 2022 attack, a court allowed her to serve her time under house arrest in Buenos Aires.

While banned from running for public office, she remains outspoken against Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei. From her apartment, she still posts diatribes on social media, waves at supporters gathered below her balcony and receives high-profile visitors, such as the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who visited her in July. Fernández de Kirchner has long rejected the corruption charges as politically motivated.

In the trial that concluded Wednesday, prosecutors aimed to prove that Sabag Montiel, an Argentinian citizen born in Brazil, and his then girlfriend, Brenda Uliarte, planned the assassination attempt in advance.

The prosecution produced WhatsApp chats about the firearm and evidence that the former couple visited Fernández de Kirchner’s house before the attack to observe her routines and security.

At the time of the shooting, Fernández de Kirchner was standing trial for corruption and crowds rallied regularly outside her home in solidarity. The former president’s supporters managed to catch Sabag Montiel as he tried to flee the scene after firing the defective gun.

He confessed to the crime in court, describing his assassination attempt as a means to exact justice for Fernández de Kirchner’s alleged corruption. Uliarte, arrested days after the incident, denied any involvement.

Source: www.theguardian.com