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An Argentine prosecutor who accused President Cristina Kirchner of obstructing a probe into the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center has been found dead just hours before he was due to testify at a Congressional hearing Monday. Some reports said he was found in his bathroom with a bullet wound to his head.
According to sources quoted in Argentine news reports, the prosecutor is believed to have committed suicide – but this information has not been confirmed.
The 1994 car bomb killed 85 people and wounded hundreds at the headquarters of the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association in Buenos Aires, in Argentina’s worst ever terrorist attack.
In 2007 Argentine courts accused Iran of financing and planning the attack, and Hezbollah of carrying it out. The accusations were dismissed by Tehran.
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner tried to form a joint “truth commission” with Iran in 2013, to investigate the bombing.
Last week prosecutor Nisman accused the president of orchestrating a scheme to clear a group of Iranians suspected of planting the bomb, in order to facilitate a trade deal with Tehran. According to Nisman, such a move was seen as a step towards normalising bilateral relations and helping Argentina reduce its energy deficit by importing Iranian oil in exchange for grain exports.
Senior officials dismissed his claims. A presidential spokesman called them “ridiculous”; Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich had said Nisman’s allegations were “crazy, absurd, illogical, irrational, ridiculous, unconstitutional”.
A judge handling the bombing case accused Nisman of exceeding his authority, saying the evidence he put forward was flawed.
The dead prosecutor had been due to present his findings to a congressional committee this Monday.
Agencies/Canadajournal
