Argentina’s top court banned former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner from holding office and upheld her six-year prison sentence for a 2022 fraud conviction involving public works contracts.

This ruling blocks her planned run in Buenos Aires provincial elections and likely ends her political career.

Kirchner, a divisive leftist leader from 2007 to 2015, denies wrongdoing and calls the case political persecution.

Her supporters protested in Buenos Aires after the verdict, CNN has reported.

The decision could either fracture or galvanize her Peronist coalition, which is searching for new leadership amid political shifts.

Written by B.C. Begley