Argentina Prosecutor Investigating Bombing Of Jewish Center Was Murdered: Report
Alberto Nisman Image by getty images
BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — A team of forensic analysts has reportedly determined that Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman was murdered and did not commit suicide.
Alberto Nisman was an Argentine-Jewish prosecutor who was found dead from a gunshot wound in his apartment in January 2015, on the morning before he was supposed to present a report on the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing to Argentinean lawmakers. The AMIA suicide bombing killed 84 and injured hundreds.
A new toxicology report on found traces of the drug ketamine, an anesthetic used on animals, and posits that at least one other person forcefully held Nisman down around the time of his death, the Infobae digital news outlet and the TN cable news network reported Thursday.
The team of investigators plans to present the report to Eduardo Taiano, the lead prosecutor looking into the circumstances of Nisman’s death, next week. Taiano will then decide how to present it to Argentina’s justice department.
Iran has been accused of coordinating the attack, and Nisman claimed that former Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role as part of a trade deal between the two countries. Since Nisman’s death, which was originally thought to have been a suicide, Kirchner has vehemently denied being involved in a cover-up.
Previous scientific tests showed that Nisman likely did not shoot himself, but the case languished until last year, when it was moved to a federal court that handles political murder cases.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
