Let me tell you about tango, the dance of Argentina. The songs are passionate. The lyrics are always about intrigue, heartbreak, and those things in life that no one can understand.
It won’t be long before the tragedy and heartbreak of Mr. Nisman’s death becomes another tango.
This week, the murder of Alberto Nisman took a rather intriguing turn. This is from Jonathan Gilbert:
A criminal case against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner seemed to dissolve Monday when a federal prosecutor dropped accusations that she and her foreign minister had conspired to shield Iranians suspected of planning the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center here.
The prosecutor, Javier de Luca, said in a court document that there was no crime on which to base an investigation. The case had been brought by another prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, who died of a gunshot wound to the head hours before he was to present his findings before Congress.
Mr. Nisman, who had conducted a lengthy inquiry into the bombing, which killed 85 people, charged that Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement, carried it out and that Iranian officials planned and financed it. In a criminal complaint, Mr. Nisman said that an agreement between Argentina and Iran to expedite the investigation into the bombing was actually the veneer for a secret deal in which Argentina, under the orders of Mrs. Kirchner, promised to absolve former Iranian officials accused of masterminding the attack.
In exchange, Mr. Nisman wrote, Iran would send oil to Argentina to ease its crippling energy deficit.
The bombing case remains unresolved.
And the murder of Mr. Nisman will remain unresolved, too.
Fausta’s Blog reported that the dismissal came on the day that Mr. Nisman’s mother filed a writ before the Supreme Court to keep her son’s complaint afloat. She also posted that the prosecutor, a man with strong connections to the Fernandez presidency, argued that the negotiations between Iran and the president’s inner circle cannot be considered a crime since conspiracy is not included in the Argentine Penal Code.
The dismissal of Mr. Nisman’s case is an insult to the intelligence of every citizen of Argentina. It is also another dagger in the heart of the rule of law. It is shocking!
I can understand now why our friends in Argentina are so cynical when it comes to politics.
