On Monday, Argentine Judges Ariel Lijo and Daniel Rafecas turned down the case of late prosecutor Alberto Nisman against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, alleging that the president participated in a cover-up plot surrounding a 1994 terrorist attack in Buenos Aires.
After investigating the case for over a decade, Prosecutor Nisman presented an indictment for the president and Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman in mid-January for their suspected involvement in attempting to hide Iran’s role in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people. Nisman was found dead in his apartment on January 18, just four days after the indictment. His death, which initially appeared to be a suicide, was declared a “suspicious” death upon further investigation. It is still unclear whether or not the death was a suicide (forced or not) or murder.
The case has been wrought with controversy. Yesterday, Viviana Fein, the prosecutor overseeing the investigation into Nisman’s death, denied the existence of a document that Clarín reported had been found in Nisman’s trash. The document allegedly called for the arrest of Timerman and President Fernández de Kirchner in June 2014. The government has stated that Nisman’s request to arrest the president only came in January, due to unnamed foreign pressure. However, Fein admitted Tuesday morning that her denial of the detention order’s existence was a mistake.
Yesterday, Judge Lijo declined to take on the investigation of Nisman’s allegations on technical grounds, claiming that it was not in his jurisdiction. A federal chamber will now appoint a judge to manage the investigation.
