Former Argentinian president Carlos Menem has been sentenced to seven years in prison for breaking UN-imposed arms embargoes while in power in the 1990s.
An appeals court found him guilty of “aggravated contraband” for his role in supplying weapons to Croatia and Ecuador when both countries were subject to arms embargoes during their conflicts with Serbia and Peru respectively.
Thursday's ruling overturned an acquittal by a lower court and is the first time in Argentina that a democratically elected president has been convicted of a crime committed during his time in power.
Notorious for his sideburns, womanising and love of fast cars, Menem oversaw a period of economic liberalisation during his decade in power that was scarred by rampant corruption. He has been charged in several other corruption cases but this is the first in which he has been convicted.
Among the charges he faces is obstructing the inquiry into the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. An Argentine court said the attack was masterminded by Iran's government and carried out by its Lebanese ally Hizbullah.
Also sentenced on Thursday were former military officers and Menem’s defence minister at the time, Oscar Camilión, the second of his former ministers to be convicted for crimes during the so-called “pizza and champagne” years of his 1989-1999 rule.
The arms smuggling came to light in 1995 when it was revealed aircraft packed with weapons were leaving Buenos Aires for Quito during Ecuador’s conflict with Peru over their disputed border. At the time Argentina was seeking to mediate an end to the conflict.
Shortly after the revelations an explosion destroyed the plant that manufactured the weapons, killing seven and damaging the town of Río Tercero. Menem faces a separate charge of involvement in the explosion, which prosecutors allege was to cover up evidence of the arms smuggling.
Despite the sentence, Menem, as a serving senator, benefits from parliamentary privilege. This protects elected representatives from jail so he will not serve any prison time unless congress votes to lift his immunity.
After the ruling, opposition leaders in congress demanded that Menem’s governing Peronist party immediately strip its former leader of immunity.
But Menem is a loyal ally of Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner and her supporters have indicated they will not move against him until after any appeal is heard by the supreme court, which could take several years.
If congress does not lift Menem’s immunity he will remain free at least until his senatorial term ends in 2017. He denies all charges against him.
Three people were killed and more than 100 injured when a commuter train crashed into another train parked between stations in a Buenos Aires suburb on Thursday. The incident occurred on the same line as a crash last year that killed 51 people.