Argentine judge seeks arrest of Fernandez
ARGENTINA: A federal judge yesterday asked Argentina’s Senate to allow the arrest of former president Cristina Fernandez on a charge of treason, for allegedly covering up the role of Iranians in a 1994 bomb attack on a Jewish centre.
Judge Claudio Bonadio asked lawmakers to remove Fernandez’s immunity from arrest, which she gained upon being elected senator. She was sworn in last week.
While Fernandez, who was president from 2007 to 2015, faces several other court actions, it is the first time a judge has requested her arrest.
Several aides and allies of Fernandez, including former legal and technical secretary Carlos Zannini and activist Luis D’Elia, were arrested yesterday on the same charges. The judge ordered former foreign minister Hector Timerman to be held under house arrest due to health issues.
Fernandez, known for fiery speeches that blast her rivals, said Bonadio and President Mauricio Macri represented a ‘‘political and judicial organisation to persecute the opposition’'.
‘‘This whole thing has been invented on the basis of things that didn’t happen,’' she said.
Prosecutor Eduardo Taiano said the charge of treason carried a potential prison sentence of 10 to 25 years, while aggravated coverup had a six-year penalty.
The judge is backing an assertion by former prosecutor Alberto Nisman that a 2013 agreement with Iran, which was portrayed as a joint attempt to solve the case, in reality ensured that the Iranians involved would never be prosecuted. The deal was approved by Congress but was later declared unconstitutional by the courts.
For Fernandez to be arrested, two-thirds of the Senate would have to vote to remove her immunity. It is unclear whether the Senate would move against Fernandez, who is still popular with many Argentines despite mounting legal woes. The Senate usually avoids votes to allow the arrest of colleagues until they have been found guilty.
Fernandez and the other defendants have several options to appeal, which could drag the case out for years.
Fernandez is not the only former president-turned-senator to face such charges. Carlos Menem, president between 1989 and 1999, was convicted of arms smuggling in 2013 and has been charged or investigated in several other cases of wrongdoing, including an alleged coverup in the Jewish centre bombing. Immunity thanks to his Senate seat has kept him from incarceration.
Fernandez and the other defendants have denied wrongdoing or involvement in any coverup involving Argentina’s worst terror attack, the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association centre in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 and wounded hundreds. – AP