Buenos Aires, Feb 14 (IANS) Argentine President Cristina Kirchner may face more troubles, with a prosecutor calling for a probe into her alleged role in covering up Iranian links to an attack on a Jewish cultural centre here in 1994, which killed 85 people.
According to a BBC report Friday, prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita, who inherited the case from Alberto Nisman, has asked a federal judge to investigate the president over the allegations.
Nisman was found dead under mysterious circumstances last month, hours before he was due to present his reasons, to a congressional committee, for seeking to indict the president, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and five others in connection with the attack at the offices of the Jewish organisation Amia.
Following this move by Pollicita, the judge will have to decide whether to authorise new investigations to probe the allegations against the president.
If the prosecutor and the judge agree that there are enough elements to prove that Kirchner committed a crime, she could face prosecution and be charged.
The president denies the allegations, with the government calling the probe an “anti-democratic attack”.
Iran has also denied to be involved in the attack.
Before his death, Nisman had published a report on the attack on the Amia Jewish centre.
He alleged that the president and others had conspired to protect Iranian suspects in the bombing case in lieu of favourable deals on oil and other goods.
The president, on the other hand, suggested that Nisman might have been manipulated into killing himself by rogue security agents in an attempt to discredit her.
According to a document written by Nisman’s successor Pollicita, there was enough evidence to go ahead with the case.
“An investigation will be initiated with an eye toward substantiating… the accusations and whether those responsible can be held criminally responsible,” Pollicita wrote.
President Kirchner’s cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, accused the courts of trying to stage a “judicial coup” by pursuing the investigation.
Anibal Fernandez, a spokesman for the presidency, said that moving the case forward was a “clear manoeuvre to destabilise democracy”.