Argentine President Cristina Fernández made her first public statement since AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman accused her of allegedly covering up Iran’s role in the 1994 attack that left 85 dead and 300 injured. Nisman is scheduled to visit congress next week invited by opposition lawmakers to reveal further details of the alleged plot.
“AMIA: once again, (there is) no justice nor truth,” Fernández wrote in her Twitter account.
The usually verbose president though resorted to the power of images to make her point, sharing a photograph showing her with former late president Néstor Kirchner and other officials during a rally to demand answers in the AMIA case, allegedly in 2007.
The president also shared the press release issued on Thursday by the Foreign Ministry led by Hector Timerman, who has also been accused by Nisman as part of the plot.
On Friday Timerman redoubled his defense by reading an email by INTERPOL‘s former head Ronald Noble, that assured Argentina maintained its policy over the red note alerts over the years.
Timerman emphasized the Argentine government did not request the cancelation of INTERPOL’s red notices against several Iranian suspects of the AMIA bombing, and rejected Nisman’s version that argued doing so.
According to the document, “the governments remain committed with keeping the red notices”.
The minister concluded by saying that “this [E-mail] proves that Nisman’s accusation were a lie”, as he insisted in calling the prosecutor “a liar” as he done the day before.
Meanwhile opposition leaders insisted special prosecutor Nisman’s accusations were serious and called for the government to address the issue.
An informal meeting with Nisman called by the opposition has been scheduled for next week when allegedly he will disclose further information on the Iran ‘cover up’ case.
However ruling Victory Front (FpV) party lawmaker Diana Conti told reporters that the bloc’s members will attend the “informal” meeting, and warned the reunion must be “public.”
“Lawmaker (Patricia) Bullrich sent an e-mail informing (about the meeting) and requested a Congress room to make the meeting. It is no formal reunion, it is something that can be done,” the lawmaker said in statements to a radio show.
”It is an informal call on behalf of Bullrich but the FpV decided to attend,” she confirmed as she warned Kirchnerite lawmakers will seek to make Nisman “answer face to face what we are going to question him about,” so that it is made “clear” before the public opinion “what is going on” with him.
“The FpV decided that it will attend the meeting. We will hear him (Alberto Nisman) and make him certain questions so that the lie is exposed before the public opinion,” Diana Conti warned.
On Wednesday, opposition lawmakers of the PRO party Patricia Bullrich and Laura Alonso called the attorney for a private meeting next week for Nisman to provide further details on the investigation that was released this week in which he accuses President Cristina Fernández and top government officials of “covering up” Iran’s alleged involvement in the AMIA attack that claimed 85 lives back in 1994.
But Conti demanded next week’s meeting to be public.
“The meeting cannot be held behind closed doors. She (Bullrich) can hold a private meeting with the prosecutor in her house, in her office. She is asking for a room in Congress to have the meeting, so it must be public,” the MP warned as she considered Nisman’s report ”makes no heads or tails.”
“(President) Cristina always had clear and firm positions in the search of truth. We link Nisman’s action with the modification of the Criminal Procedural Code”.
Meanwhile as was reported on Thursday Federal Judge María Romilda Servini de Cubría, who is replacing Federal Judge Ariel Lijo during the court holidays refused to start investigating Nisman’s complaint during the judicial recess.
“This is not one of the cases judges have to analyze during the judicial recess — despite its seriousness — as the prosecutor has not provided the evidence to back up his request,” Servini de Cubría stated in her resolution.
Servini de Cubría said it has to be Judge Lijo, who is in charge of probing those who covered up the attack, that has to decide if Nisman’s complaint can be examined as part of the same case.
Lijo will be on holiday until February 2. He was the judge who indicted Vice-President Amado Boudou for his role in the controversial Ciccone mint company case in June. Lijo, a magistrate appointed during the Kirchner era, however is also accused to be heading an onslaught against government officials.
