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Argentina court dismisses ex-president’s obstruction case

AFP

A court in Argentina has dismissed a case alleging Vice President Cristina Kirchner obstructed an investigation while president into an attack on a Jewish center that killed 85 people.

Kirchner, 68, was accused of a cover-up over an investigation into the 1994 attack in connection with a deal her administration brokered with Tehran.

No one has ever claimed responsibility for the assault — which killed 85 people, wounded 200 and remains the deadliest in the country’s history — but Israel has accused Tehran of sponsoring it.

“The agreement with Iran, whether considered a political success or failure, does not constitute a crime,” the court ruled Thursday. The decision can be appealed.

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Kirchner, who served as president from 2007 to 2015, told the court the accusation made “no sense” and was “being used as an instrument of persecution against political opponents.”

In 2006 prosecutor Alberto Nisman alleged Iran’s involvement, but his efforts to prosecute officials were stymied after Kirchner’s administration signed a deal with Iran and established a Tehran-based joint commission to investigate the attacks.

The agreement was approved in 2013 by parliament, but ultimately Iran did not respect the terms of the deal.

Nisman accused Kirchner of trying to arrange the deal in exchange for oil and trade benefits, basing his accusations on hundreds of hours of wiretaps.

But just before he was due to present his findings to Congress in January 2015, Nisman was found dead at his home in Buenos Aires.

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The attack on July 18, 1994 was the largest against the Jewish community in Argentina — the biggest in South America — followed by the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy which left 29 dead and 200 wounded.

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International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

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International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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