Decision on Iran charges is good news for Argentina’s president

The decision last week by a federal prosecutor to dismiss charges that Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner conspired with Iran to cover up its role in the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish centre has all but rid her of a legal case that plunged her presidency into crisis.

The accusations were made by another prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, just days before his death in mysterious circumstances in January. Though the death was initially ruled a suicide many Argentines believe he was murdered, and an investigation has made little progress.

Now only an unlikely appeal to the supreme court can keep Nisman’s case against the president alive. But the controversy surrounding his death continues to trouble the country, exposing deep divisions within the legal establishment and bringing an acrimonious split in Argentina’s Jewish community.

Nisman's body was found just a day before he was to give evidence to congress on his claim that in return for preferential oil deals a 2013 agreement between Argentina and Iran allowed the latter avoid responsibility for its role in the 1994 terrorist attack of the AMIA Jewish centre in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people.

But Javier De Luca, a federal prosecutor at the court of cassation, dismissed Nisman’s case against the president, ruling that there was not enough evidence to proceed. It was the third dismissal following previous rulings by a federal judge and a lower appeals court.

Denounced

Former colleagues of Nisman who had taken up the case after his death denounced the decision. Prosecutor Germán Moldes claimed that De Luca, a prominent Kirchner supporter, was doing the bidding of the president and that he was part of a group of public prosecutors “who have as their only objective to obtain impunity for officials charges with corruption”.

But confidence in Nisman’s case has been eroded as it became apparent that much of it was based on news clippings and phone taps of minor officials. Nisman’s main evidence for a secret deal with Iran was the 2013 agreement that was ratified by Argentina’s congress. De Luca concluded that meant it could not be a crime.

Kirchner allies hailed the decision. Buenos Aires province governor Daniel Scioli said “at this stage we all have to be aware that Nisman’s charges were an embarrassment”.

Nisman’s character has also come under greater scrutiny in recent weeks with the revelation he had a bank account in New York that is now being examined to see if it was used for money laundering.

President Kirchner expanded her offensive against the dead prosecutor’s reputation last week, publishing on her website an article written by Jorge Elbaum, the former executive director of DAIA, the umbrella organisation of Argentina’s Jewish community.

In it he claimed Nisman had met senior DAIA officials, telling them US financiers in dispute with the Argentine government over the repayment of bonds it defaulted on in 2001 were willing to help fund efforts by the local Jewish community to derail the agreement with Iran. Elbaum claimed that the financiers – labelled “vulture funds” by the Argentine government – wanted to use Argentina’s agreement with Iran to ratchet up US pressure on Argentina to repay the bondholders in full.

Commenting on the post, Mrs Kirchner wrote: “Everything has to do with everything (when it comes to geopolitics and international power).”

DAIA vehemently denied Elbaum’s charges, pointing out that he now worked for the government. DAIA’s president, Julio Schlosser, said “there is a campaign designed to undermine” the organisation.

Jewish divisions

The divisions in the Jewish community over Nisman deepened when a group of pro-government Jewish intellectuals held a meeting last Wednesday to set up a rival organisation to DAIA. Calling itself the National Conference of Jews of Argentine Origin the new group said it was opposed to DAIA’s conservative leadership.

It denounced DAIA’s support for the huge rally held in February demanding justice for Nisman, which the new grouping labelled an attempted “stealth coup”. Among those who took part in Wednesday’s meeting was Elbaum.

The split has been developing since Nisman’s death when the Jewish prosecutor was declared by some community leaders the 86th victim of the AMIA bombing, with one opposition rabbi labelling Jewish foreign minister Héctor Timerman a traitor for his role in negotiating the Iran deal.

But Timerman says the accord was an honest effort to end a 19-year diplomatic impasse and government supporters have pointed out that the first judge to dismiss the Nisman charges, Daniel Rafecas, is also Jewish.