Gun That Killed 'Cover-Up' Prosecutor Wasn't His

Associates say Argentina's Alberto Nisman was eager to testify
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 20, 2015 4:28 AM CST
Updated Jan 20, 2015 7:00 AM CST
Argentina 'Cover-Up' Prosecutor Warned He Might Die
Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association community center, talks to journalists in Buenos Aires in this May 2013 photo.   (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman the day before he was due to testify about an alleged cover-up in the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires is looking pretty fishy to many Argentines—not least because of the country's history of suspicious high-level suicides, and because he told reporters "I might get out of this dead" the day before he was found dead, reports the New York Times. Days before his death, Nisman accused President Cristina Fernandez's government of covering up Iranian involvement in the 1994 blast to protect a grain-for-oil deal, allegations that Fernandez's cabinet chief called "crazy, absurd, illogical, irrational, ridiculous." Thousands of protesters gathered outside the presidential palace last night.

Allies say Nisman was eager to unveil the evidence, which was seized for protection yesterday on a judge's orders. "He knew this was a complex matter involving international terrorism and a possible cover-up involving the highest powers in the Argentine government," opposition lawmaker Patricia Bullrich tells the Wall Street Journal. "But he was totally determined to push forward. At no time did he indicate he wanted to backtrack in any way. He seemed confident, certain he had irrefutable evidence." Nisman was found dead from a gunshot wound inside his locked apartment, and the investigating prosecutor says that while an autopsy has found "no intervention" of others, the gun wasn't his and she can't rule out the possibility he was "induced" to suicide, the Guardian reports. "The firearm belonged to a collaborator of Nisman," she said. "He had had it a long time." (More Argentina stories.)

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