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When Argentine special prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead Jan. 18 in his Buenos Aires apartment, some observers described him as the 86th victim of the city’s 1994 AMIA bombing.
That bombing, which was the worst terror attack on a diaspora Jewish institution since World War II and came two years after an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, remains an open wound. On July 18, 1994, it leveled a seven-story building that housed most of the city’s main Jewish organizations. Almost 21 years later — due to bungled investigations, alleged government obstruction and cover-ups and diplomatic intrigue with Iran, which is widely believed to have been responsible for the attack — no one involved in the bombing has been brought to justice.
Now, the suspicious death of Nisman, who had been about to present evidence implicating Argentina’s president and others in a cover-up of the case, is yet one more development in a seemingly endless and labyrinthine series of events in the two-decade saga.
Questions began emerging about the government’s handling of the investigation as early as December 1994, when Argentine President Carlos Menem was criticized by the Jewish community for not making more progress in the case.
Seven months later, Argentina’s Jews marked the first of what would become many annual commemorations filled with lamentations not just for the victims but for the fruitless investigation. Ruben Beraja, president of DAIA, the umbrella Jewish political organization, said at a press conference that if “time goes by without further developments, we will denounce the situation here and abroad.”
Among the numerous developments in thefirst decade of the troubled case: a trial of Argentine accomplices in which, before all were acquitted due to lack of evidence, the judge, Juan Jose Galeano, was removed
on charges of bribing a witness; and allegations that Menem accepted a $10 million bribe from Iran to cover up its involvement in the attack
In 2004, Alberto Nisman was appointed prosecutor and placed in charge of a new department overseeing the investigation. His appointment sparked hopes among local Jewish leaders that a new era had begun and the case might finally be resolved.
In an interview with JTA, Nisman showed “enthusiasm and high expectations” and criticized various missteps of his predecessor, Galeano.
But there were already threats to his safety, and the report noted that protection had been doubled around Nisman after anonymous threats were made against him and his family.
Over the years, Nisman was outspoken and developed a reputation for being an indefatigable and hardworking prosecutor.
But, in a foreshadowing of his untimely death, the threat to Nisman’s safety was re-emphasized in February 2013, when he filed a criminal complaint concerning an email threat that warned him to abandon his investigation or risk the well-being of his daughters.