Prosecutor in 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish center bombing found dead Madhee Moseman P6

 

 

Prosecutor Alberto Nisman became a controversial figure when he accused Argentina's President and foreign minister of covering up Iran's involvement in a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing. On Sunday, hours before he was set to testify before the National Congress about his allegation, he was found dead in his apartment, the country's Ministry of Security said Monday. Nisman, 51, who had been investigating the Jewish community center bombing that occurred more than 20 years ago, was found in his bathroom with a .22-caliber gun and shell casing nearby, the ministry said. No cause of death has been released, but according to the Buenos Aires Herald, Security Secretary Sergio Berni and Anibal Fernández, secretary-general to the presidency, said there are signs that Nisman's death was a suicide. "The forensic investigation is crucial. In forensic science, when you have a body, a cartridge and a weapon, everything leads to one place," Berni said, according to the newspaper. "We have to wait for the judicial to confirm."Buenos Aires police will conduct tests on Nisman's hands to see if there is gunpowder on them, the state-run Telam news agency reported. Such a test would be necessary to determine whether he committed suicide."As the days go by and we have the results from the autopsy, we will be able to determine the cause of death. I can't venture a hypothesis; that wouldn't be prudent," Viviana Fein, the federal prosecutor leading the investigation into Nisman's death, told reporters in Buenos Aires. "I can confirm that there was a gun, a .22-caliber gun. I can confirm that he died due to a gunshot. I cannot confirm further details. I will find those out in the coming days."

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The Anti-Defamation League called for a full and transparent investigation into Nisman's death, which it labeled "another tragic episode that will extend the decades-long delays in bringing the Iranian masterminds and perpetrators to justice.""The timing and circumstances of Mr. Nisman's death, coming just days after he released detailed allegations of high-level government attempts to evade his investigation and hours before he was scheduled to present additional details to members of the Argentine Congress, raise serious questions about whether Mr. Nisman's death was related to his work on the AMIA bombing," ADL National Director Abraham Fox said in a statement.