Argentine Federal Prosecutor Gerardo Pollitica is requesting permission to investigate President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and others members of the Argentine government in the cover-up of Iran’s involvement in the AMIA bombing.
Pollicita asked Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas on Friday to open an investigation to determine if Fernández de Kirchner ordered the Foreign Ministry to sign a pact with Iran to ignore the Iranian responsibilities in AMIA 1994 attack in exchange for commercial benefits.
Pollicita based the request on the 290-page complaint drafted by AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead on Jan. 16, shortly before he was to present allegations to Congress, Pollitica Rafecas to collect evidence in order to move forward with the probe.
In a related development, Nisman’s ex-wife on Thursday called for an international investigation of his mysterious death.
Sandra Arroyo Salgado, herself a judge, made the plea at a meeting organized by opposition parties in Congress, where she stated that she had asked the Public Defender’s Office to have Nisman’s Jan. 18 death investigated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
“The Argentine state acknowledged its responsibility before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for not investigating [its] worst-ever terrorist attack that killed 85 people and now also the prosecutor investigating the case,” she said in a statement that was widely interpreted as implying that Argentine justice authorities have not demonstrated the competence necessary to investigate the death of Nisman. Nisman, who was Jewish, was in 2004 appointed chief prosecutor of the bombing at the AMIA Jewish community center.
Nisman accused President Cristina Fernandez of brokering a secret deal with Iran to help shield Iranian officials charged in the attack. Fernandez has denied that.
Nisman’s ex-wife also complained of leaks in the probe into his death, which is headed by investigator Viviana Fein.
“One does not need to be a lawyer to understand that leaking information of an ongoing criminal investigation can make it collapse,” Arroyo Salgado said.
Fein initially said Nisman’s death was a suicide but later changed that hypothesis, suggesting he was murdered.
Nisman’s death, which shocked many Argentineans, will be commemorated in rallies around the world on Feb. 18 – exactly one month after he died.
In the United States, rallies are scheduled in Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Houston and San Francisco, in addition to rallies planned in Europe, in Berlin, Athens and Paris.
