Argentine president in the clear

An Argentine judge on Thursday threw out a case against President Cristina Fernandez, in which it was claimed she conspired to spare Iranian officials from prosecution over the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

Prosecutors had attempted to relaunch the case against Fernandez following the mysterious death of their colleague Alberto Nisman. Nisman had been pursuing the case himself before he was found shot dead in his apartment on January 18.

Nisman was due to testify the next day in a closed-door hearing with Congress over his claim.

Fernandez has described the accusations as "absurd." She said she is convinced Nisman's death was a killing carried out by disgruntled former intelligence agents, as part of a plot to discredit her and destabilize the government.

Following Nisman's death, Fernandez dissolved the country's intelligence service and announced plans to create a new agency. Argentina's Congress approved the law early on Wednesday evening, local time.

Nisman, 51, was appointed 10 years ago by late Argentinian President Nestor Kirchner to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in the capital that killed 85 people.

In the week before his death, Nisman accused President Fernandez, Kirchner's widow, of back-channel deals with Iran so as to avoid investigating the attack. The legal suit he filed accused Fernandez of working to absolve the Iranian officials accused of orchestrating the attack.

But on Thursday Judge Daniel Rafecas said the documents Nisman filed failed to meet standards needed to open a formal court investigation.

Iran has denied involvement in the 1994 attack.

The case has unsettled Fernandez's government. A week ago, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Buenos Aires in a silent march to demand justice.

Nisman's former wife, Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, has called for the case to be referred to an international commission, saying it had become too politicized domestically.

jr/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)