MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, December 13th 2024 - 09:01 UTC

 

 

If Argentine prosecutor Nisman was murdered, the U.N. should conduct the investigation into his death

Saturday, January 18th 2020 - 08:50 UTC
Full article 2 comments
Alberto Fernandez has suddenly changed his tune about the mysterious death five years ago of Alberto Nisman, the courageous prosecutor investigating Iran’s ties to the 1994 bombing of AMIA Jewish Comm Alberto Fernandez has suddenly changed his tune about the mysterious death five years ago of Alberto Nisman, the courageous prosecutor investigating Iran’s ties to the 1994 bombing of AMIA Jewish Comm
Nisman’s death, which is again making headlines after this month’s release of the Netflix documentary “The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy,” was originally described as a suicide by CFK Nisman’s death, which is again making headlines after this month’s release of the Netflix documentary “The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy,” was originally described as a suicide by CFK

The following opinion column was written by Andres Oppenheimer, an Argentine journalist who has been living in the United States for several decades and is an expert in Latin American affairs.

Argentina’s president Alberto Fernandez is scheduled to visit Israel on Jan. 23 to attend a ceremony in honor of Holocaust victims. Nice, but that won’t make up for his shameful flip-flop in the “Nisman case.” It’s a scandal that has enraged many Argentines and much of the world’s Jewish community.

Fernandez has suddenly changed his tune about the mysterious death five years ago of Alberto Nisman, the courageous prosecutor who was investigating Iran’s ties to the 1994 bombing of AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. The terrorist attack killed 85 people and wounded 151.

Nisman’s death, which is again making headlines after this month’s release of the Netflix documentary “The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy,” was originally described as a suicide by then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Nisman was found dead in his bathroom from a gunshot to the head the day before he was scheduled to show new evidence in congress about his charges that Fernandez de Kirchner had made a deal with Iran to cover up its role in the AMIA bombing. Nisman’s investigation had earlier concluded that the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group was responsible for the AMIA attack.

Shortly after the prosecutor’s death, however, it became increasingly clear that he may have been murdered.

Nisman’s hands showed no clear signs of gunpowder. There were indications that his body may have been moved after his death. His bodyguards had mysteriously disappeared hours before the tragedy, and some of the building’s cameras had inexplicably malfunctioned that night.

Perhaps more significantly, as I found out myself in an exchange of emails with Nisman hours before his death, he was enthusiastically looking forward to his testimony in Congress.

I had asked Nisman for an interview, and he responded in an email dated Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015 at 9:57 a.m., that he was “obviously interested” in doing it. He added, “Let’s talk on Monday at around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m.” after his scheduled congressional testimony. He died Sunday, Jan 18, at 2:46 am, his autopsy revealed later.

He sounded self-confident and eager to talk — far from a depressed person contemplating suicide. Several other people who talked to him hours before his death got the same impression. A 2016 psychological autopsy of Nisman found no evidence of “self-destructive behavior” in the days prior to his death.

Even Argentina’s current President Fernandez said in a 2017 interview for the Netflix documentary on the Nisman case that, “I doubt that he committed suicide.”

But after the documentary’s Jan. 1 release, Fernandez made a 180-degree U-turn and said that, “The accumulated evidence does not lead to the conclusion that it was a homicide.”

The Argentine president, who owes his election victory last year to the political support of his vice president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is obviously trying to protect her from suspicion that her government — or somebody who was part of it — was responsible for Nisman’s possible murder.

“Fernandez changed his speech on the Nisman murder because of a political deal he made with Cristina,“ opposition congressman Waldo Wolff told me. “He did it out of political convenience.”

The bottom line is that, five years after Nisman’s death, the only certainty is that Argentina’s investigation into the case has been a sham. The case has been so messed up that — spoiler alert! — not even the exhaustive six-hour Netflix documentary could conclude whether Nisman took his own life or was murdered.

We need a formal international investigation to solve the Nisman case. It has been done before by several other countries facing similar bungled high-profile investigations.

Lebanon created an 11-member criminal tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands — supervised by the United Nations — to look into the 2005 terrorist attack that killed Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others. The tribunal concluded that Iran-financed Hezbollah terrorists were responsible for the attack.

Argentina’s President Fernandez should urgently call for a similar U.N.-led probe into Nisman’s death. Otherwise, his trip to Israel — even though it will be his first foreign trip as president — will be seen as little more than a public-relations stunt designed to eclipse his dubious new claim that the late prosecutor probably killed himself.

Categories: Politics, Argentina.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules
  • elcabure

    I'd rather let the vile assassination of Mr. Nisman linger a while longer than let unacceptable foreign entities conduct proceedings and dictate enforceable sentences on the crime. Whatever the Argentine justice system’s shortcomings —and there are many, all of which ought to be corrected the sooner the better— the rest of the world should stay away from intervention. Many people, I included, are tired of the pretentious and hypocritical interference of aliens in the internal affairs of their countries. Just imagine if someone —perhaps Mr. Oppenheimer himself—would have suggested that the ex US President G.W. Bush be tried by the International Court of Justice for the dire consequences of the war in Iraq, where not just one but tens of thousands were slayed, or President D. Trump be tried for the murder of cunning Iranian General Q. Soleimani.

    Jan 20th, 2020 - 04:06 pm 0
  • Enrique Massot

    Let's be clear: The death of former prosecutor Alberto Nisman has been, from the beginning, a homicide for those who hate Kirchnerism.

    Nisman's death was a boost for Mauricio Macri in the months leading to the presidential election.

    Problem is, in spite of numerous interested versions such as presented above by Mr. Oppenheimer, five years have gone by, including the entire four-year-term of Macri's presidency, and no tangible evidence of outside intervention in Nisman's death has been found -- let alone a credible suspect.

    That is why those who have an open attitude ask a single thing: “Bring the evidence.”

    Jan 20th, 2020 - 08:29 pm 0
Read all comments

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!