Summary:
A federal prosecutor has dropped the accusation that was made towards the president of Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner after she and her foreign minister had conspired to shield Iranians after the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center. Javier de Luca, the prosecutor, said in a court document that there was no crime on which to base an investigation. Alberto Nisman, who was found died of a gunshot wound to the head shortly before he was to present his finding before congress, was the one who had brought up the case. Mr. Nisman said that Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement, had carried the bombing out while the Iranian officials planned and financed it. He stated in a criminal complaint that by Argentina and Iran expediting the investigation into the bombing it was actually the veneer for a secret deal in which Argentina promised to absolve former Iranian officials accused of masterminding the attack. In exchange Iran would send oil to Argentina to ease its crippling energy deficit. The bombing case itself still remains unsolved. Nisman death divided and fascinated the nation and suggestions of a shadowy power struggle between the premier spy agency and the government had fueled speculation over how he died. Mr. Nisman's ex wife had a private inquiry commissioned which suggested that he was murdered, and the first journalist to report the death had fled to Israel in which he says he feared for his life. Mr. Kirchner who first suggested that Mr. Nisman had killed himself, has shifted in believing that he had been killed pointing to previous cases of suicide that were never cleared up. Mrs. Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman who Nisman also accused in being part of the cover up, pointed to statements from Interpol's former secretary general that they had never sought to lift arrest warrants for Iranians suspected of being involved in the bombing. A federal prosecutor has revived Mr. Nisman's case by seeking to charge Mrs. Kirchner in connection to the claims of secret negotiations with Iran. The decision itself from Mr. de Luca's in dropping the case is a victory for the government but it raises new questions about the impartiality of judges and prosecutors in Argentina's acutely politicized judiciary. He took it to a higher court stating that he would not pursue the investigation because there was no evidence of a crime.
Reaction:
I think that the fact that they are dropping the case does benefit the government in many ways. but at the same time I feel that they are trying to hide something. The case itself if the bombing hasn't been solved yet and that just right there amazes me. Which also gets me to think that maybe the Nisman case itself might never be resolved either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/world/americas/federal-prosecutor-drops-kirchner-conspiracy-case.html?_r=0
Alexandra Palma
10:38 pm
4/24/15
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