News / Argentina

Argentina’s ex-finance minister sentenced to jail

Tuesday, 07 April 2015 5:29 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 07 April 2015 5:29 AM ]

Argentinean former Economy Minister (2005-2007) Felisa Miceli listens to her sentence at court in Buenos Aires, on April 6, 2015. © AFP

Former Argentine Finance Minister Felisa Miceli has been sentenced to three years in prison for covering up an apparently illegal financial operation.

Miceli was convicted by the First Oral Federal Court in Buenos Aires on Monday in the case which involved a bag with 100,000 pesos (about 30,000 dollars) and 31,000 US dollars being found in the private bathroom of her office in 2007.

“It would be a tremendous injustice to become a prisoner. I have repented. It makes me furious,” said Miceli, in tears on Monday in her final statement in court before the verdict was issued. In December 2012, a Buenos Aires court sentenced Miceli to four years in prison.

“I made a mistake. I will never occupy a public office again. I learned my lesson. It’s not out of fear that I don’t want to go to jail, but rather because it makes me angry, it hurts me that it can be so unfair,” she said.

Miceli, 62, became finance minister in 2005 and resigned in 2007 amid the scandal over the discovery of the money. She argued the money was a loan from her brother and was to be used to buy a house.

However, Miceli will not go to jail since the sentence was deemed to be “in suspension,” whereby sentences of up to three years in prison are not served.

The court confiscated the money that was found in the incident and barred the ex-minister from holding public office for six years.

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