MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Menem cleared of link with terrorist attack.

A Swiss judge investigating bank accounts claimed to belong to former Argentine President Carlos Menem said she found nothing to support allegations that he was involved in a bribe scandal to cover up the perpetrators of a 1994 terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires.

"The investigation into that matter has concluded, unless new information is provided," said Judge Christine Junod adding she had forwarded the pertinent documents to Argentina and considered the matter closed.

Argentine Ambassador in Switzerland Guillermo Gonzalez said he had sent the documents received by fax from the Swiss judge to Buenos Aires, adding that they seemed "fairly complete, with information and evidence".

An Argentine court had requested Switzerland to investigate whether the claims of a former Iranian intelligence informer Abolghassem Mesbahi's were true.

According to the Iranian informer in the mid-1990s Mr. Menem received a $10 million bribe from a Geneva bank account to help cover up Iran's role in the 1994 truck-bomb attack on a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that left 85 people dead and hundreds injured and maimed.

However Swiss courts continue to investigate whether Mr. Menem has bank accounts in some way linked to the smuggling of Argentine weapons to Ecuador and Croatia during his presidency.

Judge Junod, according to Argentine press reports said in a written statement that "progress has been made" in the issue, thanks to contributions from Argentine judges and prosecutors who traveled to Switzerland last February.