MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Journalist who first reported Nisman's death sues Aerolineas and Telam

“I won’t come back to Argentina during the current government, and also I don’t know if I will return after,” Pachter said in an interview from Israel.

Following the death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, an Argentine-Israeli journalist who first reported the death has sued two state-owned companies that publicized his private data.

 Damian Pachter filed the lawsuit on Friday against the Telam news agency and the air carrier Aerolineas Argentinas for offering his flight information to the public, divulging when he was scheduled to leave Argentina and his return date.

“…Increasing the risk that Damian had at that moment,” according to his lawyer, Javier Teitelbaum.

“I won’t come back to Argentina during the current government, and also I don’t know if I will return after,” Pachter told the TN news channel in an interview from Israel.

Telam on Jan. 24 published the details of Pachter’s Aerolineas Argentinas flight to Montevideo, Uruguay, questioning in a story whether he was leaving Argentina because he feared for his safety. The article also reported that his flight to Montevideo had a return ticket for Feb. 2, according to JTA.

Teitelbaum held the first mediation session with representatives from both companies on Friday. No agreement was signed, but the parties agreed to meet again on March 20 to continue negotiations.

If the journalist was indeed fleeing the country because of fear for his safety, the Argentine news agency and air carrier sure made it easy to locate him.

The attorney also filed a petition with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, asking for security measures for Pachter if he is called on to return to Argentina to testify in the case of Nisman’s still-unexplained death.

Alberto Nisman, 51, was found dead with a bullet to his head in his Buenos Aires home on Jan. 18. He was set to present evidence to Argentine lawmakers that President Cristina Fernandez and other government officials covered up Iran’s role in the 1994 attack on the Buenos Aires Jewish center that killed 85 and injured hundreds.

“…Increasing the risk that Damian had at that moment,” according to his lawyer, Javier Teitelbaum.