After arrest, former Argentine leader to face trial

Three months after Judge Carlos Bonadio of the High Court in Argentina ordered the arrest of former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner; judicial officials have revealed that the former leader will now face trial for covering up a bomb incident.

Kirchner and 11 others have been charged for their involvement in helping to cover up Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in the capital of Buenos Aires which claimed 85 lives.

Reports say Judge Bonadio has also requested that Kirchner’s immunity from prosecution or arrest as a serving senator be removed but the request has not yet been granted by the Congress.

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Moments after she was arrested, the High Court judge ruled that Kirchner be placed in pre-trial detention and stripped of her judicial immunity and also ordered the arrest of Hector Timerman, former foreign minister, and a number of other officials from Kirchner’s two administrations which lasted from 2007-2015.

Kirchner has also been accused of “treason” and interfering with the investigation into the bombing based on a memorandum of understanding between the governments of Argentina and Iran.

Argentine prosecutors say the attack was ordered by the government of Iran even as the arrest order is also linked to accusations made by the murdered special prosecutor, Alberto Nisman.

 

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