A court in Argentina on Thursday indicted former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for treason and ordered her arrest, Reuters reported. The former president has been charged with covering up Iran’s possible role in the bombing of a Jewish community centre in 1994, which killed 85 people.
The judge who indicted Fernández also ordered former Foreign Minister Hector Timerman to be put under house arrest. Timerman served in the post during Fernandez’s tenure as President.
Fernández was the president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015. She is now a senator, which means that the National Congress of Argentina, the country’s legislature, would have to vote to strip her of parliamentary immunity before she is arrested.
Fernandez called a news conference on Thursday to deny the court’s charges. “It is an invented case about facts that did not exist,” she said. She accused the judge and Argentina President Mauricio Macri of “degrading the judiciary”.
Carlos Zannadi, a senior legal officer in the Fernández administration, and political activist Luis D’Elía were arrested in connection with the case on Thursday, BBC reported.
The National Congress of Argentina voted on October 25 to strip Fernández’s former Planning Minister Julio de Vido of immunity. Vido, who has been accused of fraud and corruption, was arrested the same day.
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