An Argentine prosecutor was found dead just hours before giving what was expected to be damning testimony against Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, in what appears to have been a suicide, officials said on Monday.
The body of Alberto Nisman, 51, who had reportedly received threats, was found overnight in his 13th-floor apartment in the upscale Puerto Madero waterfront neighborhood of the capital, Buenos Aires.
“All signs point to suicide,” Argentine Secretary of National Security Sergio Berni said.
Photo: EPA
Argentine prosecutor Viviana Fein said Nisman died of “a gunshot wound to the temple,” and that “there was no role of additional parties [in the death].”
However, there was no suicide note or witnesses, Fein added, calling for “caution,” while the leader of one opposition party called it “an assassination.”
Investigators should examine whether Nisman was under pressure from anybody, and to whom the gun belonged, local media reports quoted Fein as saying.
Photo: Reuters
The weapon was not Nisman’s, the reports said.
Nisman, who had accused Fernandez of obstructing an investigation into a 1994 Jewish center bombing, was due to testify at a congressional hearing on Monday to provide evidence of his claims.
Since 2004, he had been investigating the van bombing of the Argentine Jewish Charities Federation (AMIA) which left 85 people dead and 300 wounded in the worst attack of its kind in the nation.
Photo: EPA
Fernandez, who has denied the accusation, released a statement ordering the declassification of intelligence information Nisman had sought a week ago.
Meanwhile, several thousand protesters mobilized in front of the presidential palace and Buenos Aires Cathedral, demanding an explanation for Nisman’s death.
Clapping and shouting “killer,” the demonstrators held banners reading: “Justice,” “Killed for investigating,” and “Yo soy Nisman.”
“I am here to seek justice for Nisman, so that we get to the truth about what happened to this man,” Carolina Arias, 31, told reporters.
Israel expressed sorrow over Nisman’s death, praising him as a courageous jurist who “worked with great determination to expose the attack’s perpetrators and dispatchers.”
Officials said a .22 caliber handgun was found beside Nisman’s body, which was discovered by his mother in the bathroom of his apartment after his security detail was unable to contact him.
Nisman had also been expected to lodge accusations against Argentine Minister of Foreign Relations Hector Timerman.
The prosecutor had accused Iran of being behind the attack and said Fernandez hampered the inquiry to curry favor with the Muslim republic and gain access to its oil.
Nisman had also accused former Argentine president Carlos Menem of helping obstruct the investigation into the unsolved bombing.
Since 2006, Argentine courts have demanded the extradition of eight Iranians, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, over the bombing.
Argentina charges that Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement, carried out the attack under orders from Iran, which Tehran denies.
Nisman had said that he had telephone recordings that allegedly showed the Fernandez government and Argentine authorities had bowed to Iranian demands after Tehran offered lucrative contracts.
Nisman was supposed to present proof of his allegations that Fernandez and Timerman had a “plan of impunity” to “protect the Iranian fugitives.”
He had also ordered the freezing of assets worth about US$23 million of Fernandez, Timerman and other officials.
Opposition lawmaker Patricia Bullrich said she was shocked by Nisman’s death, calling it “a grave affront to the country’s institutions.”
Bullrich said she had spoken to Nisman on the phone on Saturday on three occasions and he said that he had received several threats.
Elisa Carrio, leader of the Civic Coalition, an opposition party, bluntly called Nisman’s death “an assassination,” saying she did not accept that it was a suicide.
In 2013, Argentina’s Congress approved — at the request of the executive branch — an agreement with Tehran to form a truth commission to investigate the bombing, consisting of five members from neither Argentina nor Iran.
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