BUENOS AIRES (Reu-ters) – An Argentine prosecutor who accused President Cristina Fernandez of orchestrating a cover-up in the investigation of Iran over the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center was found dead in his apartment, authorities said yesterday.
Alberto Nisman, who had been delving into the blast at the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, said Wednesday that Fernandez opened secretive discussions with Iran and at least one of the men suspected of planting the bomb.
He said the scheme was intended to clear the suspects so that Argentina could start swapping grains for much-needed oil from Iran, which denies any connection with the bombing.
Nisman was found dead on Sunday night in his apartment in the posh Buenos Aires neighborhood of Puerto Madero, Argentina’s security ministry said. A 22-calibre handgun and a single bullet casing were found next to his body, the ministry said.
“Everything indicates it was a suicide,” National Security Secretary Sergio Berni told local television. “We have to see if gunpowder is found on his hands.”
Preliminary autopsy results from the morgue suggested “there was no third-person intervention in Nisman’s death,” the office of state prosecutor Viviana Fein said in a statement.
Fein told reporters she “could not rule out a provoked suicide” whereby someone forced or blackmailed Nisman to kill himself.