President Javier Milei’s government marked the tenth anniversary of the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman on Saturday with a statement stating his “murder” on Argentina's "darkest" forces.
"The Office of the President vehemently remembers the 10th anniversary of the murder of Federal Prosecutor for the UFI-AMIA [investigative unit], Alberto Nisman, at the hands of the darkest forces of power," read a statement published by Milei’s office on the X social media platform on Saturday.
Nisman was found dead from a gunshot wound in his Puerto Madero flat on January 18, 2015, in mysterious circumstances.
An official investigation into his death initially found that the prosecutor took his own life. But a federal judge later reversed the ruling, concluding that Nisman's gunshot wound could not have been self-inflicted.
After a series of judicial back and forths with various court instances analysing the hypotheses of suicide or homicide, the current file on Nisman’s death maintains that he was killed.
Just days before his death, Nisman had accused then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and several other ex-government officials of seeking to cover up alleged Iranian involvement in the deadly 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires – Argentina's worst-ever terrorist attack, which he was tasked with investigating.
The AMIA special prosecutor was found dead the night before he was due to testify about his allegations before Congress.
A new report, presented by a federal prosecutor one week ago, supports the hypothesis that Nisman was murdered because of his work with the AMIA Attack Investigation Unit (UFI-AMIA), which sought to identify the terrorists behind the bombing.
"The Executive Branch remains confident that the Judiciary will continue its investigations so that Prosecutor Nisman's murder does not go unpunished," said Milei’s government in its statement Saturday.
It also called for the continuation of "the lines of investigation into Nisman's complaint."
“On January 18, 2015, the prosecutor was preparing to present before the Congress of the Nation the details of a complaint he had made publicly against the then-president Cristina [Fernández de] Kirchner and other officials,” it continued.
Nisman had “accused them of abuse of authority and violation of the duties of a public official in relation to their actions to leave those responsible for the terrorist attack on the AMIA unpunished,” said the government.
It added that President Milei “reaffirms his commitment to see that there is justice for the victims of the AMIA bombing.”
Nisman’s death a decade ago shocked the nation. Since then, Argentines have been divided, with some convinced he committed suicide and others believing he was murdered due to his work.
Although Fernández de Kirchner did not respond directly to Milei's statement, she shared a post on her X account from Kirchnerite Senator Oscar Parrilli.
He asserted in a post that Nisman's death was "a suicide" and criticised various media outlets that, on each anniversary, "begin bombarding with reports about his so-called 'murder.'"
Arroyo Salgado speaks
Nisman’s former wife, San Isidro Federal Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, also commented on the anniversary in a radio interview.
Asked for her view of Fernández de Kirchner, who critics say was behind her late former husband’s killing, Arroyo Salgado said the former president has “surrounded herself with the wrong people” during her government.
‘She had a great state policy, with decisions that I agree with and I think are remarkable. She made mistakes like any human being, we all make mistakes. I feel that with this, in particular, she made a mistake,” she said.
Describing Fernández de Kirchner as “a great politician,” Arroyo Salgado argued that “Argentines do not want to be linked to or negotiate with terrorist states, nor with drug-trafficking, nor with violence. I feel sorry for Cristina, because she lost a historic opportunity. She had great support from all Argentines, including myself.”
She added: “I did not understand her attack on my family.”
Regarding the AMIA bombing, she said Nisman had “managed to shed light on the responsibility of high-ranking officials of the then-government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“He received death threats for opposing the impunity pact that was the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran. They began to leave him alone and he began to receive more and more threats. And when he strengthened his line of investigation, it was when he was murdered,” Arroyo Salgado told Radio Rivadavia in an interview.
“The important thing, and the legacy, is that we must never give up. One has to fight for what one considers to be one's duty and one must not live in fear, fear cannot condition us. Thank God the good Argentines realised this and chose to say no to governments that support terrorists,” said the federal judge.
Arroyo Salgado, whose profile rose in the wake of her former husband’s death, went on to describe Argentina’s Judiciary and the investigation as “a disgrace.”
The judge said that attempts had been made to “tarnish” Nisman’s reputation after his death with misinformation and the release of manipulated images.
In a later interview with the TN news channel, Arroyo Salgado reiterated that her former husband was “murdered.”
“The truth is already known, Nisman was the victim of a murder. It has been scientifically and judicially proven with evidence since 2018 and it has been proven that his murder is linked to his role in the investigation into the terrorist attack on the AMIA,” she declared.
– TIMES/NA
