Argentina special prosecutor found fatally shot at his home
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – A special prosecutor who had accused Argentine President Cristina Fernandez of shielding Iranian suspects in the South American country’s worst terrorist attack was found dead with a gunshot wound, authorities said yesterday, a development that drew outrage from Jewish leaders.
Alberto Nisman, who was set to testify yesterday in a congressional hearing about the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre, was found in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment late Sunday, federal prosecutor Viviana Fein told Telam, Argentina’s official news agency.
“We can confirm that it was a gunshot wound, .22 calibre,” she said, adding that it was too early in the investigation to know what had happened.
Nisman lived in Le Parc tower, a complex of luxury condos in the trendy Puerto Madero neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. Reporters and others gathered outside yesterday were not allowed to enter, the norm in such exclusive complexes, where many residents come and go via underground parking garages.
Nisman had 10 federal police assigned to his protection, according to a statement from the Ministry of Security, which did not provide details on where the officers were posted when Nisman died. Government officials, including Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich, have declined to comment on the investigation.
Nisman was appointed 10 years ago by Fernandez’s late husband, then-President Nestor Kirchner, to revive a floundering investigation into the bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people and injured more than 200.
A small white van with several hundred pounds of explosives detonated in front of the seven-story building, causing it to collapse in the densely populated area of town.
Argentina has one of the largest concentrations of Jews outside of Israel, with estimates ranging around 200,000, mostly in Buenos Aires.
After years of inconclusive investigations and failed trials, an Argentine judge in 2006 accepted Nisman’s request to order the arrest of a former Iranian president, foreign minister and other officials. Interpol later put most of them on its most-wanted list.
But Argentina and Iran reached an agreement in 2013 to jointly investigate the attack, a move viewed with scepticism by Jewish leaders who feared it would undermine Nisman’s probe.
