BUENOS AIRES – An Argentinean prosecutor who had accused the country’s president of back channel
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deals with Iran so as to avert an investigation into a 1994 terrorist attack has been found dead in his flat.
The Security Ministry said in a statement, on Monday in Buenos Aires, that Alberto Nisman, a Special [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]prosecutor was found dead on the bathroom floor of his Buenos Aires apartment on Sunday night with a .22-calibre gun and a bullet casing beside his body.
It said Nisman was due to participate in a closed-door session with Congress on Monday over his claim [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]that Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up a deal she made with Iran.
According to the report, a legal suit filed last week by Nisman accused Kirchner of working to absolve [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]Iranian officials accused of orchestrating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured 300.
Nisman had said that the deal was meant to foster trade between Iran and Argentina, bringing in much-needed oil to the South American country in exchange for grain exports.
The government has called the accusations “ridiculous.”
A report from Buenos Aires Herald noted that the Federal police officers assigned to Nisman’s security detail went to the prosecutor’s apartment on Sunday after he failed to answer repeated phone calls.
It said when Nisman did not answer his doorbell and his Sunday newspaper was found outside his flat, the officers notified Nisman’s family.
It said his mother therefore called a locksmith to gain access to the flat, after the door was found locked with a key inserted in the deadlock on the inside of the apartment.
No official statement was made regarding the cause of death.
Authorities led by Manuel Arturo De Campos of the National Court of Criminal Investigation No 5 are investigating the incident.
Meanwhie, Emmanuel Nahshon, Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman, has decsribed Nisman a “courageous jurist of great stature” and a “fearless fighter for justice.’’
Nahshon said Nisman acted with determination to expose the identity of those who carried out the attack and those who sent the attackers.
The state of Israel expressed the hope that the Argentine authorities would continue Nisman’s work and would make every possible effort to bring those responsible for the attacks in Argentina to justice. (dpa/NAN)
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