Former Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, along with 14 others, were summoned on Monday to testify before the Argentinian federal judge that is investigating her administration’s role in hiding Iran’s involvement in the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, The Algemeiner reported.
Judge Claudio Bonadio’s request was based on the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s charge that Kirchner sought a secret deal with Iran in connection with the 1994 bombing of the AMIA, a major Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Nisman accused Kirchner and former foreign minister Hector Timerman of covering up Iran’s role in the bombing through a memorandum of understanding with Tehran. The memorandum of understanding was later declared unconstitutional. Nisman was found dead in his apartment of a gunshot wound to his head hours before he was due to present his findings to a closed-door session of Congress.
Timerman will be the first to testify on October 17 and Kirchner is to appear before Bonadio on October 26, four days after she is expected (Spanish link) to win a Senate seat in the midterm elections in Argentina. A win would guarantee her immunity (Spanish link) from getting arrested.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Kirchner said (Spanish link) that the judge’s order is a “political persecution” and accused Bonadio of satisfying President Mauricio Macri’s interests. Macri has repeatedly said that he was determined to solve Nisman’s death and the AMIA bombing.
Timerman, along with other former Kirchner officials, including former secretary of the presidency Oscar Parrilli, and Luis D’Elia, who was part of Kirchner’s cabinet and had contact with Iranian officials, were also subpoenaed. None of those called will be allowed to leave the country until they have all testified.
Bonadio is expected to question Kirchner’s role in covering up Iranian responsibility of the terror attack as well as the secret meeting held by Timerman with Iranian envoys in Syria where they discussed cancelling the red alerts set by INTERPOL on several Iranians accused of planning the AMIA attack.
Argentina has accused Iran’s terror proxy Hezbollah of the attack, but even after more than 20 years, no arrests have been made and the investigation has been plagued with irregularities.
[Photo: Los Abandonados / YouTube]