Argentina prosecutor committed suicide: Investigator
21 Jan 2015 1:02 AM GMT
Nisman, who died on Sunday, had accused the government of shielding Iranian suspects in a 1994 terror attack that killed 85 people, and he was due to appear before Congress Monday to present his reasons for seeking to indict President Cristina Fernandez, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and five other people in connection with the crime. Viviana Fein, the lead investigator, also said on Monday she will investigate whether the prosecutor was forced to commit suicide. “I’m not ruling it out by any means,” she said when asked whether Nisman could have been forced to kill himself under some type of threat.
Fein confirmed that the gun the 51-year-old Nisman fired belonged to one of his associates, saying “it was a weapon that he had had for a long time, a small-calibre weapon, a .22. He didn’t use it, he had borrowed it,” she told TN television. She said Nisman held the gun to his temple “at a maximum distance of one cm”, and she ruled out the possibility of the shot being fired by another person.
The bullet that lodged in Nisman’s head has been turned over to ballistics, and investigators also are waiting for the results of an electronic scan, although “it’s very unlikely that such a small weapon would leave gunpowder residue on the hands”. Nisman was found Sunday night by his mother in the bathroom of his 13th-floor apartment in Buenos Aires’ exclusive Puerto Madero neighbourhood.
After eight years of investigations, Nisman last Wednesday filed charges against Fernandez for concealing the involvement of Iran in the 1994 terrorist attack on a Jewish cultural centre in Buenos Aires that claimed 85 lives.
Fein confirmed that the gun the 51-year-old Nisman fired belonged to one of his associates, saying “it was a weapon that he had had for a long time, a small-calibre weapon, a .22. He didn’t use it, he had borrowed it,” she told TN television. She said Nisman held the gun to his temple “at a maximum distance of one cm”, and she ruled out the possibility of the shot being fired by another person.
The bullet that lodged in Nisman’s head has been turned over to ballistics, and investigators also are waiting for the results of an electronic scan, although “it’s very unlikely that such a small weapon would leave gunpowder residue on the hands”. Nisman was found Sunday night by his mother in the bathroom of his 13th-floor apartment in Buenos Aires’ exclusive Puerto Madero neighbourhood.
After eight years of investigations, Nisman last Wednesday filed charges against Fernandez for concealing the involvement of Iran in the 1994 terrorist attack on a Jewish cultural centre in Buenos Aires that claimed 85 lives.
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