BUENOS AIRES, October 1 (RAPSI) – The president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has slammed US Judge Thomas Griesa for the alleged intention to “destroy” Argentina’s sovereignty and the process of debt restructuring, RIA Novosti reports on Wednesday.

In July, Judge Griesa ruled that Argentina must repay two US hedge funds that sued the country to pay off their bond purchases in full before repaying other bondholders.

Argentina has said the decision was a violation of international law and paid $161 million of its debt on Tuesday, urging creditors to receive the funds at Argentinean rather than US banks.

Argentina recently passed legislation to move the jurisdiction of its bonds governed by US law to Argentina. Judge Griesa said this was illegal and can’t be carried out.

On Monday, Griesa ruled that Argentina is in contempt of court for its attempts to avoid his orders to pay off the two hedge funds first.

President Kirchner said the ruling was taken ahead of the planned interest payments to disrupt the process of debt restructuring and that Griesa wants “to destroy the sovereignty” of Argentina.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that Argentina must pay $1.33 billion to the hedge funds that refused to accept steep discounts when the country restructured its debt. Argentina refused to comply with the ruling, after which Judge Griesa placed an injunction on the funds which Argentina transferred in payment for its restructured debt and forbade banks to service the country’s other debt payments.

The case stems from Argentina’s $100 billion default on its debt in 2001. In two subsequent restructurings, in 2005 and 2010, creditors holding about 93% of the debt received 25 cents to 29 cents on the dollar.

Dissident bondholders led by the hedge funds NML Capital Ltd and Aurelius Capital Management refused to go along with the restructurings, demanding the full payment of the $1.5bn they are owed.