A judge, Daniel Rafecas, will now begin the process of requesting evidence and setting up investigative inquiries, and can decide whether the case should be dismissed or proceed to involve a trial, said Susana Ciruzzi, a professor of criminal law at the University of Buenos Aires.

Still, Professor Ciruzzi emphasized that the case was unlikely to be resolved soon because of the complexity of the evidence and because the defendants’ lawyers may seek to “muddy the playing field.”

Aníbal Fernández, Mrs. Kirchner’s chief of staff, said that “the charges have no legal value.”

Challenging a central premise of Mr. Nisman’s complaint, Mrs. Kirchner’s government has previously pointed out that Interpol had confirmed that the foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, had not tried to lift warrants for the arrest of the Iranian officials wanted in connection with the bombing.

Francisco Resnicoff, a political analyst at the Cefeidas Group, an international advisory firm, said it remained to be seen how the judge would view the prosecutor’s move. “It is based on evidence that has a big media impact ahead of the Feb. 18 march but may not necessarily overcome the legal test,” he said of the decision to seek charges.

Laura Alonso, an opposition lawmaker, called for an impartial investigation into the accusations made by Mr. Nisman. “Now we have to let the judge and the prosecutor work without pressure or interferences,” she told the DyN news agency.

Referring to the upheaval in Argentina’s political establishment after Mr. Nisman’s death, Julio Cobos, an opposition party leader, told the local news media, “It’s not normal for a country to have its vice president indicted and a request for the president to be charged,” referring to the prosecutor’s move on Friday and the indictment last year of Amado Boudou, the vice president, in a corruption case involving the easing of a printing company out of bankruptcy.