Argentine officials believe prosecutor Alberto Nisman was shot dead by rogue agents
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Version 0 of 1. Officials in Argentina believe a controversial prosecutor who accused the country’s president of derailing an investigation into bomb attack was shot dead by rogue agents. The body of Alberto Nisman was found last Sunday with a single gunshot wound to his head, just hours before he was due to give testimony to politicians about his accusation levelled at President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Officials initially said it appeared the 51-year-old prosecutor had taken his own life. But amid widespread dismay, and a flurry of protests held in several Argentine cities, Ms Kirchner said she did not believe Mr Nisman had taken his own life. Now the government says Mr Nisman’s allegations and his death were linked to a power struggle at Argentina's intelligence agency and agents who had recently been fired. It said they deliberately misled Mr Nisman and may have had a hand in writing parts of his 350-page complaint. “When he was alive they needed him to present the charges against the president. Then, undoubtedly, it was useful to have him dead," said the president’s chief of staff, Anibal Fernandez, according to Reuters. A protester holds a candle up to riot police during a vigil for Nisman (AP) Mr Nisman had been examining a 994 blast that left 85 people dead and over which Iranian officials have long been accused. Mr Nisman claimed last week that the president opened a secret back channel to Iran to cover up Tehran's alleged involvement in the bombing and gain access to Iranian oil needed to help close Argentina’s $7 bn per year energy deficit. The Argentine government's chief of staff said on Friday that he didn't believe Nisman even wrote his own report. “I have worked quite a bit with prosecutor Nisman. I know he was a well qualified expert in the law. He could not have written this nonsense,” he said. “It is totally clear he had nothing to do with it, but there were people around him who had a different agenda.” The head of Argentine intelligence was replaced in December, resulting in the firing of agents who had been helping with Mr Nisman’s investigation. Ms Nisman had accused agents from another faction within the state intelligence apparatus of being part of Ms Kirchner’s alleged plot to clear the Iranian suspects. One of those fired in the December shakeup was Antonio Stiusso, a senior spy who had helped Mr Nisman with the probe, Reuters said. The government said Mr Stiusso falsely told Mr Nisman that two men implicated in the case against the president were state intelligence agents. There has been no comment on this allegation from Mr Stiusso. The President said on Thursday that she did not believe Nisman took his own life. “Nisman’s accusation never was, in itself, the true operation against the government,” she said in a letter posted on Facebook. “The true operation against the government was his death, after accusing the government.” |