Advert also argued that country should revive controversial agreement with Iran which was at centre of Albert Nisman’s allegations against President Fernández

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Argentina’s government has taken out a full-page advertisement in national newspapers accusing Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor whose mysterious death triggered a political earthquake, of attempting to destabilise the country.



Spies, cover-ups and the mysterious death of an Argentinian prosecutor Read more

The advert, framed in the light blue of Argentina’s flag, also argued that the country should revive a controversial agreement with Iran which was at the centre of Nisman’s explosive allegations against President Christina Fernández de Kirchner.

Nisman was found shot dead on 19 January, the day before he was due to give testify before Congress that Fernández had conspired to cover up Iran’s alleged involvement in a 1994 attack on a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people.

But the adverts which appeared on Wednesday said that Nisman’s allegations were “plagued with contradictions and a lack of logic”, and cast doubt on the late prosecutor’s motivation.



“Could there be any hypothesis other than that he was trying to destabilise politics?” it asked.



The prosecutor had alleged that a 2013 memorandum of understanding (in which Iran and Argentina agreed to to jointly investigate the bombing) was the fruit of secret negotiations in which Fernández agreed to shield five Iranian officials in return for trade concessions.

The memorandum was never ratified by Tehran, and last year an Argentinian court declared the deal unconstitutional, but Wednesday’s adverts argued that the deal still offered the best hope for clarity over the bombing. Iran denies any responsibility for the attack on the Amia Jewish centre; nobody has ever been convicted over the bombing.

“In this context, it is only possible to ratify the path drawn by the executive branch and congress through the memorandum of understanding, a tool that would enable us to interrogate the Iranian citizens accused,” the advert said.



“This situation would put the Argentinian state in a better position regarding Iran and the international community to demand extradition or negotiate a trial in a third-party country.”

Last week Judge Daniel Rafecas dismissed Nisman’s 298-page accusation, saying there was “no document, no testimony, no intercepted phonecall” to support the allegations.



But on Wednesday morning, prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita, appealed to a higher court to overturn Rafecas’s ruling. Rafecas is a controversial figure, having been removed from a previous case involving alleged wrongdoing by the Fernández administration.

A major judicial scandal erupted in 2012, when it was revealed that, while presiding over a corruption investigation into Fernández’s Vice-President Amado Boudou, he had given advice to defence lawyers on how to proceed in the case. A higher court ruled that there was a clear conflict of interest, and removed Rafecas.

Fernández has always denied Nisman’s accusations, and since his death, she has continued a one-sided confrontation with the late prosecutor. On Sunday, she upped the stakes with the suggestion that his death had somehow benefited Israel in its opposition to nuclear talks between US and Iran.

“The US is currently negotiating a nuclear agreement with Iran, with strong

opposition from the Republican Party and Israel,” Fernández said in a speech

to congress referring to Nisman’s death as part of a Middle Eastern

conspiracy unfolding on Argentinian soil. “Doesn’t anybody link these

things?”

During the four-hour speech, Fernández also seemed to revive a theory that Israel was itself responsible for another unsolved bombing in Buenos Aires - the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy which left 29 dead.

“That was on Israeli soil,” the president said, referring to the embassy’s

extra-territorial status. “I still can’t understand why the state of Israel demands [justice] for Amia but not for the blowing up of its own embassy.”

The comments prompted a swift reply from the Israeli embassy in which it reaffirmed Tel Aviv’s demand for justice in the unsolved attack. A delegation from Israel will be arriving in Buenos Aires this month to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of that bombing on 17 March.