Iran-Contra CIA Figure Indicted Again

A federal grand jury indicted former CIA Costa Rican Station Chief Joseph Fernandez for the second time today on charges that he lied to obstruct investigations of the Iran-Contra scandal.

An earlier, five-count indictment against Fernandez was dismissed at the request of prosecutors last fall after a federal judge in Washington complained that the case should have been brought in suburban north Virginia, where he allegedly committed most of the crimes.

The new four-count indictment, returned in Alexandria, Va., similarly alleged that Fernandez lied to the CIA’s inspector general’s office and to the Tower Commission about secret U.S. efforts to arm the Nicaraguan Contra rebels during a ban on such aid.

It charges him with two counts of obstruction of a proceeding and two counts of making false statements to conceal his role and that of White House aide Oliver L. North. The charges carry a combined maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines.

A spokesman for Iran-Contra independent prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh offered no explanation for a decision by prosecutors not to pursue a broad conspiracy count contained in the original, June 20, 1988, indictment. It charged Fernandez with organizing and directing the airlift that dropped weapons and other aid to the rebels.

Walsh had delayed seeking a new indictment of Fernandez until the jury in the North trial was sequestered for its deliberations last week, an apparent attempt to avoid publicity that might prejudice the case.

A lawyer for Fernandez, who operated under the pseudonym Tomas Castillo while stationed in Costa Rica from July, 1985, to December, 1986, had accused prosecutors last fall of “knowingly” pursuing a “fundamentally flawed indictment” by bringing the case in the wrong venue.