Argentine Prosecutor Dismisses Accusations Against President

An Argentine prosecutor moved on Monday to dismiss accusations leveled against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner by the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman.

If you remember, right before he was found dead in his home, Nisman was about to tell lawmakers that he wanted to charge Kirchner for allegedly thwarting an investigation into the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita took up Nisman's investigation but a judge in February threw out the allegations and now federal prosecutor Javier De Luca, a Kirchner loyalist who was assigned to the case after that, told Reuters that he has found that "there has been no crime."

The big newspapers in the country, La Nacion and El Clarín, agree that this likely puts an end to a case rife with political intrigue.

Here's how we've summed the case up in the past:

"Pollicita [accused] President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Foreign Minister Héctor Marcos Timmerman and other top officials [of trying] to cut a deal for oil with Iran in exchange for not punishing two Iranians implicated in the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association, which left 85 people dead.

"In the accusation, Pollicita said the decision to "cover up" the two Iranians was made by Kirchner and it was carried out by Timmerman.

"Pollicita made accusations based on an investigation started by prosecutor Alberto Nisman. ...

"If you remember, just before Nisman about to the brief Congress on the accusations against the president, he was found dead at his home. ...

"An initial autopsy had determined he committed suicide, but questions were soon raised and Kirchner herself raised further questions when she dissolved the country's intelligence agency, saying they 'needed [Nisman] dead.'"

Kirchner has always maintained her innocence.