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Nisman: 5 years of questions, CNN program in Spanish 0:15
(CNN Spanish) - The death of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman in 2015 shocked Argentina, and his death, one of the most mysterious in Argentina, remains unsolved.
The Argentine prosecutor had been trying to resolve the attack on the Jewish mutual Amia for more than a decade, which in 1994 killed 85 people, the worst terrorist attack in the country.
The week before his death, Nisman filed a criminal complaint against the then president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, whose government had signed an agreement with Iran to establish a joint investigation into the attack on Amia. For Nisman, this agreement hid a secret pact, something that the then president has consistently denied.
Look here the chronology of the events that led to the death of Alberto Nisman, the Argentine prosecutor whose death has triggered years of unanswered questions.
BEFORE
1994
On July 18, 1994, a terrorist attack destroyed the seven-story building of the Israel Mutual Association of Argentina (AMIA), located in the Once neighborhood of Buenos Aires. In fact 85 people died.
The AMIA attack was the second against Jewish interests in Argentina. In 1992 a bomb exploded in front of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people and wounded 242 more.
Both the Jewish community and the Argentine justice attributed to Iran and Hezbollah the planning and execution of both attacks.
2004
In 2004, the trial that sought to clarify the AMIA attack ended with the acquittal of all Argentines charged with the local connection. The investigation that had advanced on the "local track" of the assumptions responsible for delivering the truck that was used as a car bomb was also canceled, among which were four police officers.
The then president Néstor Kirchner created the AMIA fiscal unit and appointed Alberto Nisman as the investigating prosecutor of the attack.
2006
Nisman framed Iranian officials and former officials, but could never question them judicially.
Iran has always denied its cooperation, until the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Iran reached an agreement in 2013 to advance the clarification of the attack.
2007
Interpol ordered the issuance of red alerts about 5 Iranian officials and former officials and a Lebanese citizen. This involved a request to security forces around the world to temporarily locate and detain the suspects of the attack pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action.
2008
Iran rejected a request for extradition of the defendants by claiming that "there is no visual evidence that denotes the intervention of the authorities will go in the explosion."
2011
A speech by President Cristina Fernández turned history and transformed the confrontation that the case had had so far, in cooperation. Fernández de Kirchner changed Argentina's strategy to interrogate Iranians suspected of the attack.
“The Argentine government has received on July 16 a message from the Iranian Foreign Ministry that culminates expressing its intention to cooperate and initiate a constructive dialogue with Argentina to help reach the truth regarding the brutal attack committed against the Israeli mutual on July 18, 1994, ”Kirchner said in New York on September 21 of that year.
2013
On January 27, 2013, the two countries signed the memorandum of understanding.
The text of the memorandum agreed to create a "truth commission" composed of international jurists to analyze the judicial documents of Argentina and Iran.
On February 28, 2013, the Argentine Congress approved the memorandum. However, a sector of the relatives of victims of the attack opposed this agreement and Nisman himself presented a judicial protection to stop his final approval, because for him
2014
On May 15, justice declared the agreement of understanding unconstitutional and ordered that the treaty not enter into force.
Nisman's death and the first year
January 14, 2015
The prosecutor filed a criminal complaint against the then president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, regarding the agreement signed with Iran to establish a joint investigation into the AMIA attack.
For Nisman, that agreement hid a secret pact: guaranteeing impunity for Iranians accused by Argentine justice in exchange for boosting trade relations. That alleged impunity meant asking Interpol to cease the red alerts so that the Iranians did not have an international capture request.
From Kirchnerism they always flatly denied the accusations against the former president.
January 18, 2015
Alberto Nisman was found lifeless in his apartment, in one of the most exclusive and guarded areas of the city of Buenos Aires.
According to justice, the intellectual authors of that attack were senior officials of the Iranian State, something they always denied from Tehran. Until now the attack went unpunished.
January 19, 2015
On January 19, Nisman was scheduled to explain the complaint against Kirchner before a commission of the Chamber of Deputies. Although the congress was waiting for him that day to defend his complaint, the prosecutor never made that appointment.
That day thousands of people took to the streets to demand justice and truth.
The president reacted in a letter in which she spoke of a "suicide." "What led a person to make the terrible decision to take his own life?" Said Fernández de Kirchner's letter reacting to the prosecutor's death. Two days later, she says she is convinced that Nisman's was not suicide.
January 24
The journalist who reported on the death, Damián Pachter, left Argentina for fear of his life.
26 of January
Diego Lagomarsino, Nisman's collaborator, was charged for providing him with the gun from which the bullet came out.
January 29
A crowd said goodbye to Nisman.
March 5th
Nisman's judge and ex-wife, Sandra Arroyo, presented a forensic medical report that rules out suicide, contradicting the official autopsy. It raises serious doubts about the handling of the crime scene.
May 20th
A new medical board was installed and concluded that there was no evidence of a murder against the prosecutor.
The security force formed an interdisciplinary board and built a replica of the bathroom where Nisman was found.
December 17
Prosecutor Viviana Fein was removed from the case. Judge Fabiana Palmaghini assumed. He determined that there were actions that were not carried out and ordered new measures and new citations.
AFTER
2016
In September, the nation's Supreme Court decided that the investigation into Nisman's death would be left to federal justice. A judge delegated the investigation to prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, who requested a new expert opinion from the gendarmerie.
2017
December
The second of the expert reports in the investigation into Nisman's death concluded that he was murdered. This version is the opposite of the 2015 survey that says Nisman had committed suicide. This decision marked the first time a judge described the death as a homicide, in a case that has been plagued with speculation and conspiracy theories.
A letter was sent that the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, sent to his Argentine counterpart, Hector Timmerman, in which the allegations of alleged cover-up in the AMIA case were revived.
The letter would confirm the existence of an agreement between the government of former Argentine President Cristina Fernández and the government of Iranian former president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, to request the lifting of international capture alerts that weigh on the suspects of the attack.
According to the letter, the foreign ministers of Iran and Argentina at that time, Ali Akbar Salehi and Timerman, respectively, sent a request to Interpol to put an end to the obligations of this institution with respect to the AMIA case.
This document was included in the formal complaint against Héctor Timerman and other former members of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's cabinet, of course covering up the attack on the AMIA and for treason. In this case, house arrest is issued against Timerman on December 7.
2018
January
A judge confirmed that Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was murdered in “direct consequence” of the complaint for cover-up against the country's former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
“First of all, it must be mentioned that we are facing an investigation in which prima facieque Natalio Alberto Nisman has been credited was murdered and that said event was directly a consequence of the complaint he made on January 14, 2015 as head of the Investigation Fiscal Unit of the terrorist attack against the headquarters of the AMIA ”, affirms the ruling.
March
A judge ordered an oral trial for the former president of Cristina Fernández for an alleged cover-up in the case of the AMIA attack. The investigation originated from the complaint filed by the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman. In February of that year, a prosecutor asked to bring the case to trial and at that time Fernández de Kirchner defended his innocence and said he is part of a "political persecution." Fernandez denies that he has agreed to benefit the Iranians.
June
In the second instance, justice ratified that prosecutor Nisman was killed. The ruling of the Federal Chamber of Argentina is not a direct signal against Fernández de Kirchner.
January 2020
It has been five years since Nisman was found lifeless in his apartment and there are no signs that the case will be resolved soon.
It is such a politicized cause, with so many comings and goings, that there is probably always a sense of doubt about the true story behind his death, that for those who knew him most is murder.
Alberto Nisman
