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Journalist Who Reported on Argentine Prosecutor’s Death Flees to Israel
Journalist Who Reported on Argentine Prosecutor’s Death Flees to Israel
(about 3 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Damián Pachter, the journalist who broke the story of the recent death of an Argentine prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, has fled to Israel, saying he feared for his life in Argentina.
JERUSALEM — Damián Pachter, the first journalist to report the suspicious death of an Argentine prosecutor, has fled to Israel, saying that he feared for his life in Argentina.
In a first-person account of the days before his flight from Argentina published on Monday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Mr. Pachter said he concluded late Friday that he was being followed by an intelligence officer who “wore jeans, a jeans jacket and Ray-Ban sunglasses” and decided to leave the country immediately. He said that he bought a ticket to Montevideo, Uruguay, from Buenos Aires, and that he traveled on to Madrid and Tel Aviv.
In an account published on Monday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Mr. Pachter said he concluded late on Friday that he was being followed by an Argentine intelligence officer who “wore jeans, a jeans jacket and Ray-Ban sunglasses,” and decided to leave the country immediately. He said that he flew to Israel by way of Montevideo, Uruguay, and Madrid.
After landing in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening, Mr. Pachter told reporters waiting for him at the airport, “They are using their security forces to chase me.”
“They are using their security forces to chase me,” Mr. Pachter told reporters at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv when he arrived Sunday evening. “I just had to move fast and quick, as fast as I could.” Mr. Pachter added in the televised remarks that he held Israeli citizenship.
“I just had to move fast and quick, as fast as I could in order to get onto a plane and leave the country,” he added, speaking in English.
Working for the English-language Buenos Aires Herald, Mr. Pachter was the first to report, based on information from a source he did not name, that the prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, was dead, and that he had died in suspicious circumstances. Mr. Nisman was found Jan. 18 in his Buenos Aires apartment, dead from a gunshot wound to the head, on the day before he was scheduled to testify before lawmakers about the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center and its aftermath, a case with major political implications.
In the televised remarks, he noted that he held Israeli citizenship.
Mr. Nisman, 51, had been investigating the bombing for a decade, and had leveled serious accusations: that Iranian officials had planned and financed the attack; that Hezbollah, Iran’s ally in Lebanon, had carried it out; and that the president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and her top aides had conspired to cover up Iran’s involvement as part of a deal to supply Iranian oil to Argentina.
“These are the most important years of my life,” he added. “This is the place where I feel safe.”
Mr. Pachter reported the news about his death in a series of posts on Twitter, first that there had been “an incident” at Mr. Nisman’s home, then that he had been found in his bathroom in a pool of blood.
Mr. Pachter could not immediately be reached for comment.
At first, Argentine officials said evidence at the scene suggested suicide, but within days that conclusion was withdrawn and officials were saying that an ousted spymaster was involved.
Relying on a source he said he considered reliable, Mr. Pachter, a journalist for the English-language Buenos Aires Herald, was the first to publicize the suspicious death of Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor. Mr. Nisman was found dead in his Buenos Aires apartment from a gunshot wound to the head on Jan. 18, the day before he was to testify before lawmakers about his accusations regarding the 1994 attack on the Jewish center and its aftermath.
Mr. Pachter seemed to have first become alarmed about his own safety on Friday, when a colleague pointed out a report by the state news agency, Télam, attributing a Twitter message to him that he said he had not written. He took the report to be “a kind of coded message,” he said. Later he spotted the man in sunglasses, sitting nearby as he waited for a friend in a gas-station cafe outside the city.
Mr. Nisman, 51, had been investigating for a decade the bombing in which 85 people were killed. He had accused Iranian officials of planning and financing the attack and Iran’s Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, of carrying it out. He also accused President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina and top aides of having conspired with Iran to cover up responsibility for the bombing as part of a deal that would supply Iranian oil to Argentina.
“When an Argentine intelligence agent is on your tail, it’s never good news,” Mr. Pachter wrote.
Mr. Pachter first took to his Twitter account to report that there had been “an incident” at Mr. Nisman’s home. He then posted that Mr. Nisman was found in his bathroom in a pool of blood, that he was not breathing, and that doctors were at the apartment.
After he left Argentina, he said, the Twitter feed of the Argentine presidential palace posted the details of the airline ticket he had bought.
Argentine officials at first said that evidence at the scene, including a .22-caliber pistol and spent cartridge found near Mr. Nisman’s body, indicated suicide. By Friday, Argentina’s government was asserting that an ousted spymaster was involved.
Mr. Pachter seemed to have first become alarmed about his own safety on Friday. He wrote in Haaretz that he was working in the newsroom when a colleague drew his attention to a story about Mr. Nisman’s death by the state news agency. It quoted what was said to be a post on Twitter by Mr. Pachter, but he denied writing that message.
Mr. Pachter said he realized it was “a kind of coded message” and was advised by a friend to get out of the city. He took a bus to an undisclosed location and, he wrote, and while he waited for his friend at a gas station cafe, he noticed the man wearing the sunglasses — at night — sitting two tables from him.
“When an Argentine intelligence agent is on your tail, it’s never good news,” Mr. Pachter wrote. “He didn’t just want to have a coffee with me, that’s for sure.”
Mr. Pachter added that after he left Argentina, he found that the government was still publishing false information about him on social media. He said the Twitter feed of the Argentine presidential palace had posted the details of the airline ticket he had bought and claimed, wrongly, that he intended to return to Argentina by Feb. 2.
“In other words, I hadn’t really fled the country,” he wrote. “In fact, my return date is in December.”
“Argentina has become a dark place led by a corrupt political system,” he added. “I still haven’t figured out everything that has happened to me over the past 48 hours.”
“Argentina has become a dark place led by a corrupt political system,” he added. “I still haven’t figured out everything that has happened to me over the past 48 hours.”
Jorge Capitanich, Argentina’s cabinet chief, defended the publication of Mr. Pachter’s movements on the Twitter account of the presidential palace. At a news conference on Monday morning, he said, “If a journalist says that he feels threatened, it’s important to publish his whereabouts.”
Jorge Capitanich, Argentina’s cabinet chief, defended the publication of Mr. Pachter’s movements on the official Twitter account. At a news conference on Monday morning, he said, “If a journalist says that he feels threatened, it’s important to publish his whereabouts.”
Télam, the national news agency, also sought to defend itself from Mr. Pachter’s accusation that it had published invented comments, writing in a piece that it had never “alluded to a fake tweet.”
Télam, the national news agency, denied on Monday that it had ever “alluded to a fake tweet.”
The conduct of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the state-run airline, was also criticized by opposition politicians. It was the airline that released the information about Mr. Pachter’s tickets. Julio Cobos, an opposition figure, said that releasing the information may have constituted a criminal act. He also pointed to the “complete irresponsibility” of the presidential palace’s Twitter account.
Julio Cobos, an opposition politician, criticized the state-run airline, Aerolíneas Argentinas, for releasing the information about Mr. Pachter’s ticket, saying that doing so might have constituted a crime.
