Rafecas returns from holiday as Comodoro Py is engulfed by the march to honour Nisman.
Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas will wait until next week to make a decision on the writ filed on Friday by federal prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita, formally accusing President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of seeking to shield the alleged Iranian masterminds of the terrorist attack against the AMIA Jewish community centre.
Rafecas yesterday returned from holiday to the courthouse located on Comodoro Py Avenue, a decision he made on Friday after Pollicita decided to move forward with the complaint filed by AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman four days before he was found dead of a gunshot to the head.
On the third floor of the courthouse, Rafecas started his day early and his door remained shut the whole day, making it clear that he would not risk making statements that could later be misconstrued in such a sensitive issue.
Sources close to the magistrate appointed during the Kirchnerite era yesterday told the Herald that he will take, at least, until Friday to examine the request issued by Pollicita. Pollicita did not make public what actions he requested from the judge but sources close to him leaked to some opposition media that he wanted the judge to cross-reference phone conversations between government officials to determine if there was a network of parallel diplomatic negotiations that sought to seal a deal with Tehran.
Nisman had claimed Fernández de Kirchner’s administration had agreed to lift the “Red Notices” against five Iranian suspects in order to promote trade relations with Iran.
According to judicial sources, Rafecas has two options. The first one would be to analyze the complaint as a whole, which would include making a broad decision on whether to move forward with the investigation or reject it outright. Another option — which is seen as the most likely — would involve giving a green light to some of the requests filed by prosecutor Pollicita, who was in his office yesterday on the fifth floor of the courthouse.
In the Comodoro Py courthouse, judges and prosecutors explain that Rafecas finds himself in the middle of a crossfire. On the one hand, they say he is being pressured by opposition media, which want him to promote the investigation into Fernández de Kirchner and her allies.
On the other hand, they point out Rafecas is on thin ice due to the complaints that Vice-President Amado Boudou’s lawyers filed against him regarding the probe into the Ciccone mint case.
Sources from the Magistrates Council — the body in charge of the selection and removal of judges — told the Herald that Rafecas has five complaints in that body and faces an impeachment request for his performance in the Ciccone case. The government, however, is hesitant to move forward with that complaint because it had been filed by lawyers who are now working for Darío Richarte’s law firm, linked to sectors of the secret services that are now on bad terms with the Pink House.
Rafecas was appointed in 2004 and became one of the most respected judges in the courthouse, where he had to handle sensitive cases such as the investigations into crimes committed during the 1976-1983 dictatorship in the City and Greater Buenos Aires. He has published two books on the Holocaust and is said to have close ties with Jewish community organizations.
Fifth floor
While Rafecas was in the spotlight yesterday, action was taking place two floors above his office, where federal prosecutors have their offices. That is the location of the offices of prosecutors Carlos Stornelli, Carlos Rívolo and Guillermo Marijuán, three of the key organizers of the march.
The three prosecutors were not the only organizers of the demonstration. In fact, some speculate that Germán Moldes, the prosecutor before the Federal Criminal Appeals Court, and Raúl Pleé, one of the prosecutors before the Federal Criminal Cassation Court, the country’s highest criminal tribunal, were masterminds of the silent march. Moldes is one of the prosecutors who is on the worst terms with Attorney General Alejandra Gils Carbó and has come under criticism — just like Pleé did — for shelving the AMIA case by the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), which represents the Memoria Activa group in court.
The majority of the prosecutors tried to stick to their daily routine. Federal prosecutor Jorge Di Lello was one of those who opposed the march, saying that the state’s attorneys should work in Comodoro Py. Di Lello is not seen as a Kirchnerite supporter as last year he charged Boudou for his role in the Ciccone mint case.
What prosecutors did seem to agree on yesterday is that the so-called 18F “silent march” would mark a watershed, after which an air of political change will blow in the country’s most influential courthouse.
buenosairesherald.com