Argentine president says ‘no proof’ AMIA prosecutor Nisman was murdered

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said on Thursday he doubts that a prosecutor who died two days after accusing former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of a cover up in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center was murdered.

But He also rejected the official explanation of a suicide by Alberto Nisman, who was special prosecutor into the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) headquarters, which left 85 dead and 300 wounded.

Fernandez told Radio10 that “there isn’t a shred of proof” that Nisman was murdered, as his family insists. He also rejected Nisman’s claim of a cover up by Kirchner, calling it “absurd.”

In the Nisman case, he said “the only person harmed by the crime was Cristina.”

A vigil in Buenos Aires on the first anniversary of Argentinean prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death, January 18, 2016. (Omer Musa Targal/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

In 2015, Nisman’s body was found in his Buenos Aires apartment with a gunshot wound to the head, delivered at close range from a handgun found at his side.

The timing and circumstances of his death were suspicious: it came just days after he directly accused then-president Kirchner and some of her top aides of covering up Iran’s alleged involvement in the bombing.

A man walks over the rubble after a bomb exploded at the Argentinian Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 1994. (AFP/Ali Burafi)

“I doubt that someone who was going through a euphoric moment could commit suicide, I don’t know that. I’m allowing myself to doubt it,” Fernandez, whose vice president is Kirchner, told Radio 10.

The interview came a day after a Netflix miniseries was released which includes a 2017 interview in which Fernandez says that “Till this very day, I doubt he killed himself.”

Nisman had been due to outline his case against Kirchner before Congress just two days after his death.

Kirchner, president from 2007 to 2015, is accused of having attempted to cover up Iranian involvement in the bombing in return for lucrative trade deals with her government.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner speaking on TV on January 26, 2015 in Buenos Aires. (screen capture via AFP)

In July, Fernandez testified in Kirchner’s trial over a newspaper interview he gave in 2015 criticizing her for allowing Iranian suspects to be questioned back home, rather than in Argentina.

Men walk pass posters that read in Spanish “Demand justice to justice,” in reference to march organized by federal prosecutors demanding justice after the death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 13, 2015. (AP Photo/ Rodrigo Abd/ File)

Although he was cabinet chief under Kirchner’s husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner, and initially held onto the post under Cristina Kirchner, the two fell out and Fernandez became a heavy critic of the then president.

The two have since made up and Fernandez took over the presidency in December, making Kirchner his vice president.

Nisman’s accusation was twice dismissed before judge Claudio Bonadio took up the case in 2016, after Kirchner had been replaced by Mauricio Macri as president.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.