The mysterious death of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman seems ripped straight out of a crime thriller.
Nisman — the indefatigable prosecutor collecting evidence of culpability in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people — was found dead in his apartment just hours before he was to present evidence to Argentina’s congress that he said implicated his country’s president and foreign minister in a nefarious cover-up scheme.
The charge? That the two agreed to whitewash Tehran’s role in the AMIA bombing in exchange for oil shipments to energy-hungry Argentina.
Nisman’s body was discovered on Jan. 18 in his apartment with a single gunshot wound to the head.
Officials connected to the president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, quickly said evidence pointed to suicide, noting that a .22-caliber pistol and a spent cartridge were found near Nisman’s body.
But the suicide theory was dismissed out of hand on the streets of Buenos Aires and among people around the world familiar with Nisman and his work. Rather, they said, Nisman, 51, was the victim of foul play. The suicide theory lost more ground with the later revelation that no traces of gunpowder were found on Nisman’s hand. In addition, there was no suicide note.
“The idea of suicide I think is nonsense,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
“The Jewish community has lost a stalwart hero, and Argentina and all people who pursue the truth and justice with a passionate zeal have lost a great fighter,” Foxman said. “Throughout the years, all kinds of forces have tried to put him down, to destroy him. Every time he uncovered new stuff or exposed some interests that weren’t happy, they set the courts against him or they set the police against him. And every time they tried to put him down, he fought it, he got up and beat them.”
The investigation of the bombing was seen as hopelessly inept and corrupt until Nisman took over the case in 2005.
There were no significant arrests for years after the AMIA bombing, which was preceded by the deadly 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29. After 20 local men, including 19 police officers, were put on trial in 2001 on charges of involvement in the Jewish center attack, the investigating judge, Juan Jose Galeano, was caught on video offering one of the men a bribe in return for evidence. The case collapsed, the police were acquitted, and Galeano was removed from the case and impeached.
Appointed to take over the case by then-President Nestor Kirchner, the late husband of the current Argentine leader who had called the handling of the case a “national disgrace,” Nisman launched a more professional investigation. He traced the links from Iranian leaders who ordered the attack to Hezbollah operatives who planned its execution, formally charging Iran and Hezbollah in 2006. Interpol issued arrest warrants for six Iranian officials, but Iran denied any connection and refused to hand over the suspects.
In 2013, when Argentina and Iran signed a joint memorandum of understanding to investigate the bombing, Nisman and Jewish leaders in Argentina and abroad called the deal a farce. Many were incensed that the deal was negotiated by Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, a prominent Argentine Jew whose father, Jacobo Timerman, had been a well-respected Argentine-Israeli human rights activist. The governments of Israel and the United States also denounced the deal.
Nisman challenged the arrangement in court as “wrongful interference” by the president in judicial affairs and the probe was never implemented.
Meanwhile, Nisman and his team continued to press forward. Last week, Nisman filed a 300-page complaint alleging that Kirchner, Timerman and others were seeking to “erase” Iran’s role in the AMIA bombing in exchange for establishing stronger trade relations, including oil sales to Argentina. He was slated to present his evidence to Argentina’s congress on Jan. 19.