MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nisman case: Prosecutor and judge charged with negligence

Not a single fingerprint of Nisman was found in the apartment where he lived

Former Argentine Prosecutor Viviana Fein and Judge Manuel De Campos have been charged with serious irregularities in their handling of the scene of former AMIA Prosecutor Alberto Nisman's death, it was announced Wednesday in Buenos Aires.

Federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano claimed in his filing before Federal Buenos Aires City Federal Judge Julián Ercolini that Fein and De Campos were negligent in preserving the evidence at Nisman's apartment in the Puerto Madero neighborhood.

The charges came over 10 years after Nisman was found dead on Jan. 18, 2015, just days after he had accused then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of covering up the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association's (AMIA) headquarters.

According to Taiano, the scene was “plagued with serious and obvious irregularities,” and the actions of judicial officials and security forces “destroyed or altered” crucial evidence. The indictment notes that a lack of control at the scene allowed at least 88 people to pass through the three-room apartment, with officials failing to find a single one of Nisman's fingerprints but instead retrieving one from a Coast Guard officer at the scene. Expert witness Osvaldo Raffo described the situation as the actions of “a herd of buffalo.”

Taiano maintains that Nisman's death was a homicide motivated by his work and his complaint about the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran. The new charges expand on the previous charges brought against officials, including former Security Secretary Sergio Berni.

“Federal prosecutor Natalio Alberto Nisman was the victim of a homicide, and his death was motivated by his work at the UFI-AMIA and, specifically, by his actions related to the Memorandum of Understanding with the Republic of Iran,” reads a 56-page report on Taiano's investigation, which is now focusing on the Army Intelligence services under the command of ultra-Kirchnerist General César Milani.