Argentina judge seeks arrest of ex-leader Cristina Fernandez

BUENOS AIRES – Reuters

A federal judge in Argentina indicted former President Cristina Fernandez for treason and asked for her arrest for allegedly covering up Iran's possible role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people, a court ruling said.

As Fernandez is a senator, Congress would first have to vote to strip her of parliamentary immunity for an arrest to occur. The judge, Claudio Bonadio, also indicted and ordered house arrest for Fernandez's Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, the 491-page ruling said.

Fernandez called a news conference in Congress to deny wrongdoing and accuse Bonadio and President Mauricio Macri of degrading the judiciary.

"It is an invented case about facts that did not exist," she said, dressed in white.

Timerman's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

While removing immunity from lawmakers is rare in Argentina, Congress voted on Oct. 25 to do so for Fernandez's former planning minister Julio De Vido and he was arrested the same day. De Vido is accused of fraud and corruption, which he denies.

Argentina's legislature has entered a period of judicial recess until March but can be convened for urgent matters.
               
Fernandez and her allies have been the focus of several high profile cases with arrests and indictments since center-right Mauricio Macri defeated her chosen successor and was elected president in late 2015.

Fernandez left office just a few months before the Congress in neighboring Brazil impeached another leftist female leader, Dilma Rousseff for breaking budget laws.

The cover-up allegations against Fernandez gained international attention in January 2015, when the prosecutor who initially made them, Alberto Nisman, was found shot dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment.

An Argentine appeals court a year ago ordered the re-opening of the investigation.

Nisman's death was classified as a suicide, though an official investigating the case has said the shooting appeared to be a homicide.

Nisman's body was discovered hours before he was to brief Congress on the bombing of the AMIA center.