An Argentine prosecutor said Friday there is enough evidence to continue an investigation into whether President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner hid Iran’s alleged role in a deadly 1994 bombing, a probe that paused after a different prosecutor died mysteriously last month.
Federal Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita filed a 61-page report essentially endorsing what prosecutor Alberto Nisman claimed before he died in January: that evidence shows Fernandez and other top officials tried to cover up Iran’s alleged involvement in the bombing that killed 85 people at a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
Pollicita sent his report to a judge, who is expected to examine it next week after he returns from vacation. The judge can determine whether the case can proceed to trial.
Nisman, a special prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, alleged last month that Iran was behind the attack, and that Fernandez, to help sweeten a trade deal, covered up Tehran’s involvement.
That trade deal, Nisman alleged, involved cash-strapped Argentina receiving Iranian oil in exchange for meat and grain.
Nisman made the allegation in a nearly 300-page report. But on January 18, one day before he was to testify before lawmakers about his allegations, he was found dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound to the head.
In his trash can, investigators say, was a 6-month-old draft warrant for Fernandez’s arrest.
Fernandez initially called it a suicide, but a test found no gunpowder residue on Nisman’s hands.
Fernandez said a few days later that she didn’t believe Nisman killed himself, alleging that some members of the country’s intelligence agency fed Nisman false information about a cover-up and were responsible for his death.
The President and the other accused government officials deny any cover-up in the bombing.
Anibal Fernandez, the President’s general secretary, said the allegations against Fernandez are “a clear maneuver to destabilize democracy” in the South American country.
He also said the investigation lacks “judicial value” or “importance.”
About 10 years ago, Nisman was appointed as special prosecutor to investigate the bombing by then-President Nestor Kirchner, Fernandez’s late husband.