Argentina’s government said Monday there was no indication that anybody else was involved in the death of a prosecutor who had accused President Cristina Fernandez of shielding Iranian suspects in the nation’s deadliest terror attack, a declaration sure to be closely scrutinized.
Alberto Nisman, who had been investigating the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, was found in the bathroom of his apartment late Sunday, hours before he was to testify in a Congressional hearing about the case.
Investigating prosecutor Viviana Fein said the preliminary autopsy found “no intervention” of others in Nisman’s death. However, Fein said she would not rule out the possibility that Nisman was “induced” to suicide because the gun was not his.
“The firearm belonged to a collaborator of Nisman,” Fein told Todo Noticias television channel. “He had had it a long time.”
According to the autopsy, Nisman had a bullet entry-wound on the right side of his head but there was no exit wound. His body was found inside the bathroom and blocking the door, and there were no signs of forced entry or robbery in the apartment, Fein said.
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Israel’s foreign ministry expressed “deep sorrow” over Nisman’s death.
“Nisman, a courageous, venerable jurist who fought intrepidly for justice, acted with determination to expose the identities of the terrorists and their dispatchers,” a ministry statement said.
Within hours after news of Nisman’s death spread, a well-known group called “Indignant Argentines” called for demonstrations in several areas of Buenos Aires.
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Prengaman reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Vicente Panetta in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.
