Argentina judge dismisses bombing cover-up case against president

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – A federal judge on Thursday firmly dismissed allegations that Argentine President Cristina Fernandez tried to coverup the involvement of Iranian officials in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre, easing a crisis for her government fed by the death of the prosecutor who brought the case.

Judge Daniel Rafecas said the documents originally filed by the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman failed to meet “the minimal conditions needed to launch a formal court investigation.”

“There is not a single element of evidence, even circumstantial, that points to the actual head of state,” the judge said.

READ MORE: Thousands of Argentines march to demand answers about dead prosecutor

Nisman had filed the complaint just days before he died on Jan. 18 under mysterious circumstances. Polls show many Argentines suspect officials had some hand in the death, though Fernandez and aides have suggested the death was actually aimed at destabilizing her government.

While the decision can be appealed, the judge’s scathing wording appears to substantiate government insistence that Nisman’s case was baseless, though his death still casts a shadow across the administration.

“Rafecas’ decision gives the government some breathing room,” said Roberto Bacman, director of the Center for Public Opinion Studies, a South American research firm. Before Thursday’s decision, “the government had only been receiving bad news.”

Tens of thousands of Argentines marched through the capital last week demanding answers a month after he was found in his bathroom with a bullet in his head.

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Nisman had asked judges to authorize a formal criminal investigation of the president, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and other figures on allegations that they agreed to grant impunity for eight Iranians accused in the attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in which 85 people died. In return, he said, Iran would increase trade with Argentina.

The prosecutor who took over the case after Nisman’s death, Gerardo Pollicita, renewed his request.

Rafecas also rejected Nisman’s theory that the deal was linked to an agreement for the two countries to jointly investigate the bombing. He noted that the 2013 agreement, scuttled by Congress, never took effect.

Investigators say they are trying to determine if Nisman was killed or committed suicide.

The president initially suggested the 51-year-old prosecutor had killed himself, then did an about-face a few days later, saying she suspected he had been slain.