ARGENTINA-IRAN/RALLY Political allies rally to support Argentina's Fernandez amidst Iran cover-up allegations

Record ID: 214858

  • Title: ARGENTINA-IRAN/RALLY Political allies rally to support Argentina's Fernandez amidst Iran cover-up allegations
  • Date: 23rd January 2015
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (JANUARY 22, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE RULING JUSTICIALIST PARTY LEGAL AND TECHNICAL SECRETARY FOR THE PRESIDENCY, CARLOS ZANINI, ARRIVING AT HEADQUARTERS ARRIVAL OF VEHICLE CARRYING GOVERNMENT MINISTERS GOVERNOR OF BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, DANIEL
  • Embargoed: 7th February 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACNBXAZ2VNU786B9QV39ESVFZ7
  • Story Text: Political allies of President Cristina Fernandez rallied support for Argentina's embattled leader in Buenos Aires on Thursday (January 22) as she faces accusations surrounding a death related to the investigation of Iran over the 1994 bombing of an Argentine Jewish community centre.
    Prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who for a decade investigated the blast at the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish community centre that killed 85 people, was found with a gunshot wound to his head on Sunday (January 18). He had been due to testify at a congressional inquiry the next day about his allegations that Fernandez had pushed to normalise relations with Iran as a step toward clinching a grains-for-oil deal.
    Protests across the country have been seething with conspiracy theories since Nisman's death, some pointing the finger directly at Fernandez and her government.
    But at the headquarters of the ruling Justicialist Party in Buenos Aires, political allies came out in defence of the president.
    According to the government, two men who Nisman believed were deeply involved in the alleged cover-up had been falsely presented to him as state intelligence agents. Fernandez has said the deception discredited Nisman's charges against her and points to a conspiracy to smear her name.
    The document presented at the party headquarters blames intelligence agents for Nisman's murder.
    "We have no doubt that the filth that surrounds this case demands a clean up of its methods and procedures and precisely demands the stance that our president has taken so that the Argentine people can know the truth, one which does not depend on intelligence agents which many times in our history has represented the worst of our politics. Today they're the torpedoes of national and international power threatening a coup that intends to tarnish a political project that works on behalf of the majority of the Argentine people," said Jorge Landu of Fernandez's Justicialist Party.
    Fernandez has said that ten bodyguards should be investigated in connection with Nisman's murder.
    Amongst those coming out in support of Fernandez was presidential candidate and possible successor Buenos Aires Province Governor Daniel Scioli.
    Fernandez has been in office for seven years but is barred from running for a third consecutive term.
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