[AFAIK]

A crusading Argentine judge has ordered the arrest of the country’s former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on charges of “treason against the fatherland,” accusing her of covering up Iranian involvement in the country’s worst-ever terrorist attack.

The 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish cultural centre, AMIA, killed 85 people. No one has ever been successfully prosecuted for the crime.

An Argentine prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, was investigating. On January 14, 2015, he filed a criminal claim accusing Mrs Kirchner and others of secretly negotiating a deal with Tehran to offer immunity for Iranian suspects in the bombing, in exchange for Iranian oil.

Mrs Kirchner said the allegations were part of a broad international conspiracy to undermine her presidency. Her government said it had been in talks with Iran to create a commission aimed at clarifying who was responsible for the bombing.

Mr Nisman was due to present his findings before Congress on January 20, but the day before was found dead inside his apartment, with a bullet fired into his head.

Mrs Kirchner initially said it was suicide, but then said she believed it was a murder orchestrated to smear her. Last month an Argentine panel concluded that he had been murdered.

Mrs Kirchner stepped down from the presidency in December 2015, and was elected to the Senate in October – a move which grants her immunity. She was due to be sworn in on Sunday.

But on Thursday, Judge Claudio Bonadio accused Mrs Kirchner of the crime of treason and asked for Congress to remove the immunity from prosecution she has as a senator.

Argentine newspaper Clarin reported, however, that Congress was unlikely to secure the two-thirds majority vote to do so – meaning her detention was not expected.

Prosecutor Eduardo Taiano said the judge also ordered the arrest of Carlos Zanni, her former aide, and Luis D’Elia, a high-profile Kirchner activist, on the same charges.

Former foreign minister Hector Timerman was ordered to be held under house arrest, due to health issues.

Mrs Kirchner is accused of signing a deal with Tehran to allow Iranian officials suspected of ordering the attack on the Jewish centre to be interviewed by Argentine magistrates in Tehran rather than in Buenos Aires.

She has previously called the case an “absurdity”, and pointed out that both she and her husband Nestor, the former president, were instrumental in pushing for an investigation into the attack.

The treason accusations are the most serious charges facing Mrs Kirchner, 64. She is also facing trial in several other cases involving corruption and money laundering stemming from her years as president. Last week, the court rejected an appeal by Mrs Kirchner to dismiss the laundering charges.

Several prominent members of her former government have also been detained on corruption charges in recent weeks, including ex-public works minister Julio De Vido and Amado Boudou, her vice president from 2011 to 2015.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12 ... er-terror/