Guardian News and Media/Buenos Aires

A federal court of appeals dismissed charges against Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, regarding an alleged conspiracy to shield Iranian officials’ from prosecution over their alleged role in the deadly 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community centre.
The charges had originally been made by deceased prosecutor Alberto Nisman in January, four days before he was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in his Buenos Aires apartment.
On January 14, Nisman had presented a 289-page writ in court that he said unveiled a conspiracy headed by Fernandez to clear five high-ranking Iranian suspects of charges that they had masterminded the 1994 bombing of the Amia centre, in which 85 people were killed .
In a 2-1 vote, appeals judges dismissed Nisman’s accusation, but there is a strong likelihood that prosecutor German Moldes - who upheld Nisman’s charges before the judges - may appeal the decision to a higher court.
Fernandez and other officials accused by Nisman of being involved in the alleged conspiracy have all flatly denied the charges.
Nisman’s mysterious death triggered a political earthquake, which has rocked Fernandez’s government. Opinion polls have shown roughly 70% of Argentinians believe Nisman was murdered - a hypothesis propelled by the prosecutor’s family and seemingly confirmed by their independent forensic tests. One month after his death, 400,000 people participated in a “march of silence” demanding justice for Nisman . The court investigating his death has stuck to the hypothesis of suicide.
As the special prosecutor in charge of the investigation into the Amia bombing, Nisman had obtained Interpol arrest warrants against five Iranian officials that he charged with masterminding the 1994 bombing.
Nisman claimed as evidence to support the charges of conspiracy, an agreement signed by Iran and Argentina in 2013 to set up a binational “truth commission” to investigate the Amia attack. Nisman claimed that the agreement effectively neutralised his investigation and the Interpol arrest warrants against the Iranian suspects.
Although the Iran agreement was blocked last year by a court ruling that declared it “unconstitutional”, Nisman decided to accuse Fernandez in January of attempting to block the court case against the Iranian suspects with that agreement.
Fernandez needed to close the court case against the Iranians “as part of a new geopolitical alignment on the current world stage”, Nisman said in his extensive writ.
Nestor Kirchner, Fernandez’s husband, who preceded her as president from 2003-07, had resolutely rebuffed approaches from Iran proposing generous trade concessions in return for Argentina dropping the charges against its five citizens. Following his unexpected death from heart failure in 2010, Fernandez began seeking closer relations with Russia, China, Venezuela and Iran.
“Fernandez made Argentina drop off the map of the world with these new alliances,” said legislator Elisa Carrio, a presidential hopeful for Argentina’s upcoming October elections.

Steps to boost economy unveiled
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced a series of plans to subsidise consumer goods as the government looks to stimulate the economy ahead of presidential elections in October. The government will spend 3bn pesos ($340.7mn) to subsidise bottled gas for 2.5mn users, offer fixed rates for new taxi cabs, provide 25% discounts on energy-efficient household appliances with up to 12 monthly instalments and expand the use of a transport card with 8mn users to provide discounts at shops, Fernandez said. “These are measures to stimulate the economy, an intervention of the state in the economy not to take anything away from anyone but to promote industry and commerce,” Fernandez said during a nationwide speech from Buenos Aires. Argentina, South America’s second-largest economy, last year grew at its slowest pace since 2009 as a drop in imports to shield dwindling international reserves and a fall in investment left government spending as one of the few growth motors.