Investigation Keeps Open All Hypotheses about Nisman’s Death

BUENOS AIRES – All hypotheses remain open in the investigation into the death of Argentine Prosecutor Alberto Nisman, whose possible suicide in unexplained circumstances has shocked the country and after the latest evidence was not decisive in determining what occurred.

Prosecutor Viviana Fein, who has termed Nisman’s possible suicide as a ‘suspicious death’, on Tuesday began interrogations of, among others, Nisman’s ex-wife, two of the 10 policemen who were part of his bodyguard detail, the manager of the building where he lived and the assistant who lent him the gun found next to his body early Monday.

Nisman’s ex-wife, Sandra Arroyo Salgado, told the media that the judiciary should be allowed to do its work and conjectures on what happened should not be made.

The two police officers who were undergoing interrogation by Fein said that they never came up to the house and that they tried to communicate with him for two hours on Sunday but getting no response, they called his mother to enter the house.

Fein also ordered a search of Nisman’s office in the hope of finding evidence and an investigation into his phone calls made five days prior to his death.

A test to determine whether there was gunpowder on Nisman’s hands came out negative, although this does not rule out suicide as small calibre weapons such as the one found next to his body do not always leave behind traces.

Tuesday’s preliminary autopsy reports note that by the position of the hand and fingers it can be determined that the gun was fired by Nisman and that there was no intervention by third parties in his death.

A shopping list for Monday was also found which was reportedly left for a domestic worker and was procured during the search of Nisman’s apartment.

Nisman was in charge of the investigation of a bomb attack against the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, AMIA, building that left 85 dead in 1994.

Last week, Nisman had filed a suit against Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and other officials for signing a memorandum of understanding with Iran in 2013 on the attack, including the alleged cover-up of the perpetrators of the bombing for commercial relations and exchange of oil for wheat during the Argentine energy crisis.

The full text of the report was released Tuesday by Federal Judge Ariel Lijo, who took charge of the case on Monday, and in the report Nisman accuses Fernandez of articulating a ‘criminal plan of impunity’ for terrorists.

It also says that Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman was “the main implementer of the devised plan of impunity’ and ‘conveyed to Iran the decision of the Argentine government to abandon” investigating the AMIA case.

Fernandez Tuesday once again resorted to social networks to reiterate the existence of a “sordid” plot behind Nisman’s death.

Similarly, Cabinet Chief Minister, Jorge Capitanich, asked during his daily briefing to investigate till the end to see if there was any kind of pressure or extortion that could have led to his possible suicide.