UPDATE 1-Brazil's Lula approved to visit Kirchner under house arrest, media reports

An Argentine court authorized Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to visit Argentina's former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, local media reported on Wednesday. The visit will come weeks after she began serving a six-year sentence under house arrest for corruption.

An Argentine court authorized Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to visit Argentina's former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, local media reported on Wednesday.

The visit will come weeks after she began serving a six-year sentence under house arrest for corruption. Lula is currently in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, where he is participating in a two-day summit of leaders from South American trade bloc Mercosur.

Kirchner, a two-term president from 2007-2015, is among Argentina's most prominent politicians of recent decades, though her leftist brand of populism divides opinion and sets her firmly against current libertarian President Javier Milei. She was also vice-president under the former government of President Alberto Fernandez.

In June, Argentina's Supreme Court upheld a 2022 conviction against Kirchner related to a fraud scheme involving public projects in the southern Patagonia region. The ruling also included a lifetime ban from holding public political office. Some analysts have said she could potentially

exercise influence from her Buenos Aires apartment, where the judge ordered that the 72-year-old politician serve out her sentence due to her age.