Daniel Rafecas is not expected to take the case, but Appeals Court will have the final word
Federal Judge Ariel Lijo yesterday decided to drop the complaint filed by late AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman for allegedly orchestrating a plan to grant impunity to the Iranian officials suspected of attacking the AMIA Jewish community centre.
In turn, Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas was drawn by lots by the Federal Criminal Appeals Court to take the case, but he is on holidays. Meanwhile, his replacement, Federal Judge Sebastián Ramos, is expected to read the 289-page complaint filed by Nisman and to decide if the case is within Rafecas’ jurisdiction.
Ramos is likely to make a decision in the next few hours but he will have to reach an agreement with Rafecas. However, everything indicates that the magistrate will be dropping the complaint. In that case, the Federal Criminal Appeals will have to decide the judge in charge of examining the legal filing made by Nisman on January 14, four days before being found dead of a gunshot would in his apartment in the City neighbourhood of Puerto Madero.
Ramos was yesterday on medical leave, thus the magistrate was not at the federal courthouse located on Comodoro Py Avenue when he received a phone call from his colleague Lijo telling him that he had the sensitive case in his hands. Ramos will be reportedly going back to his office today and he will be able to make a decision.
Magistrate Ramos will have to discuss his next steps with Rafecas as Federal Judge María Romilda Servini de Cubría did last month when Nisman filed the complaint reporting an alleged cover-up of the AMIA terrorist attack. Servini was replacing Lijo but both of them agreed not to move forward with the case during the judicial recess. According to sources, Nisman heaved a sigh of relief when he learned about Servini’s decision as it would have given him more time to collect evidence to sustain his complaint against the head of state.
Sources from Rafecas’ office told the Herald that Ramos will be probably sending back the case to Lijo’s office and then the Appeals Court will have to decide if Lijo or Rafecas will have to evaluate the merits of Nisman’s complaint.
Rafecas is going through a delicate situation at the Magistrates Council, the body in charge of the selection and removal of judges following a complaint filed by Vice-President Amado Boudou after the judge decided to move forward with the investigation into his role in the sale of Ciccone, the mint company that prints the country’s peso notes, and a complaint sponsored by Radical party (UCR) members for his probe into the bribery case in the Senate during Fernando de la Rúa’s term in office.
For the Kirchnerite administration, Lijo is a risky bet. He was the judge who indicted Boudou with bribery and negotiations incompatible with public office for his role in the Ciccone case and he is seen by government officials as the leader of a judicial onslaught against the Pink House. However, officials are aware that he normally issues rulings with grounds. If Lijo says that Nisman’s complaint had no merits, that would be the best -ever scenario for Fernández de Kirchner.
Lijo’s decision
Lijo went back to his office on the third floor of the Comodoro Py courthouse on January 19, hours after Nisman’s mysterious death was confirmed. He ordered the seizure of all the evidence the late AMIA special prosecutor had in his office.
The close relationship between Lijo and Nisman was due to the many years they spent investigating the cover-up of the AMIA bombing. He was one of the few officials working at the Comodoro Py courthouse who attended Nisman’s wake last week.
Along with federal prosecutor Ramiro González, Lijo examined Nisman’s complaint and decided it was not compatible with the investigation into the cover-up of the AMIA bombing they have been conducting. Their decision was anticipated last week by the Herald.
Since he became judge in 2004, Lijo has had in his hands the investigation into how the judiciary covered up the terrorist attack that killed 85 people in 1994. The probe has been divided into how the Intelligence Secretariat (SI, formerly known as SIDE) paid briberies to Carlos Telleldín — who sold the van used in the attack — to implicate Buenos Aires provincial police officers in the case and into how judicial officials avoided to follow the line of investigation that indicated that Syria was behind the attack.
In 2012, Lijo sent former president Carlos Menem (1989-1999, current Peronist senator), former judge Juan José Galeano, former SIDE chief Hugo Anzorreguy and former Federal Police (PFA) chief Jorge “Fino” Palacios to trial for the cover-up of the AMIA attack. He also indicted Rubén Beraja, the former DAIA Jewish community organization leader, for also being part of the cover-up plot. Almost 21 years after the worst- ever terrorist attack suffered by the country, the cover-up case is still waiting to be aired in court.
Nisman’s complaint
On January 14, Nisman rocked the political world when he filed a complaint against Fernández de Kirchner, her Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, La Cámpora youth organization lawmaker Andrés “Cuervo” Larroque, former Kirchnerite official Luis D’Elía and Quebracho ultra-nationalist organization head Fernando Esteche. Nisman also accused former judge Héctor Yrimia and Ramón Allan Héctor Bogado of being intelligence agents working for the Kirchnerite administration and Jorge Khalil of being the link with Tehran in Buenos Aires.
According to Nisman, Argentina signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran in January 2013 to lift the Interpol “Red Notices” against the Iranian suspects, something that was dismissed by the former head of Interpol in conversation with Página/12 two weeks ago. According to Nisman, the president wanted to promote trade relations with Tehran and had agreed to leave the justice claim behind.
The prosecutor filed his complaint before Lijo as he was the magistrate in charge of investigating the cover-up of the AMIA bombing. Federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral is the judge who investigates the bombing case and harshly criticized Nisman for putting the case in the hands of his colleague Lijo.
In his writ, Lijo yesterday reminded that he investigated crimes surrounding the AMIA case committed before 2004 whereas Nisman’s complaint focused on alleged offences perpetrated between 2011 and 2013.
@lucianabertoia
Source: Buenos Aires Herald