MOSCOW, January 24 (Sputnik) — Rogue agents of Argentina's security apparatus could be behind the death of the state prosecutor investigating the 1994 Jewish community center bombing, government officials said Friday, according to Reuters.
Telesur reports that Alberto Nisman was found dead in his apartment hours before he was scheduled to appear before Argentina's Congress on Monday to give his report on the bombing.
According to the New York Times, the mysterious death follows the ousting of an intelligence official, Antonio Stusso, who is suspected of feeding Nisman misleading information about the case. US diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks, the prosecutor was also being advised by US and Israeli intelligence services, according to Telesur.
The death, initially ruled a suicide, has been questioned by Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner, according to Telesur. A Prosecutor's Office employee who testified that he lent Nisman the pistol which was later found to be the weapon responsible for his death, for self-protection, is forbidden to leave the country, according to the Buenos Aires Herald.Last week, Nisman, reading into the case of the attack, accused Kirchner and Timerman of conspiring to "ensure impunity" of Iranians, indicted for participation in the blast by Argentinian authorities. In addition, Nisman asked the judge to question the president and foreign minister on the case and to impose an embargo on their property in the amount of 200 million pesos (about $23 million).
In addition, the prosecutor indicted several other politicians, close to the incumbent government. He speculated that they were mediators in the negotiations with Iran on exchange of Argentinian grain to Iranian oil. The government rejected the accusations, calling the grain-for-oil deal unrealistic, according to the New York Times.
Argentina accuses a number of high-ranking Iranians, including former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven former government officials of the involvement in the organization of the largest terrorist attack in the country's history, which killed 85 people and injured over 200. Iranian authorities have always vehemently denied the accusations.