“60 Minutes” will be exploring the mysterious and controversial death of Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who died in January of a gunshot wound to the head.
Nisman’s death came one day before he was going to unveil his case against Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and foreign minister Hector Timerman. He was reportedly set to accuse Kirchner and Timerman of conspiring to protect Iranian officials implicated in a 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Nisman’s Death Remains a Mystery
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Nisman was found dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires home on Jan. 18, 2015, according to the New York Times. He died from a gunshot wound to the head. The apartment had been locked from the inside and a pistol was found near his body. No suicide note was found.
Days before his death, as he planned to release details of his accusations against Argentina’s president and one of its top officials, Nisman told a reporter “I might get out of this dead,” the Washington Post reported.
Nisman accused Kirchner and the government of secretly negotiating with Iran to avoid punishment for Iranians allegedly responsible for the 1994 bombing, according the Post. He was set to testify before the Argentine congress and said he had damning evidence, including wire taps. He claimed in a 289-page complaint that the deal would have been in exchange for a trade pact that would help Argentina’s struggling economy.
“The president and her foreign minister took the criminal decision to fabricate Iran’s innocence to sate Argentina’s commercial, political and geopolitical interests,” Nisman said a week before his death, according to the Associated Press.
2. His Ex-Wife Says He Was Murdered
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Nisman’s former wife, Sandra Arroyo Salgado, an Argentine federal judge and the mother of Nisman’s two daughters, said March 5 that investigators she hired had ruled out suicide or accidental death, concluding that he was “without doubt the victim of a homicide,” the New York Times reported. The official investigation hasn’t been completed.
Arroyo Salgado said that Nisman’s body had been moved after his death and he suffered “anguish” before he died.
The gun used was found in the bathroom, and reportedly was given to Nisman by an aide, who was the last person to see him before he died. The aide, Diego Lagormarsino, a tech worker in the prosecutor’s office, spoke to 60 Minutes in a rare interview. He said he gave Nisman the gun because Nisman was afraid for his life and did not trust his bodyguards. He told interviewer Lesley Stahl:
He told me, ‘Do you know how it feels that your daughters don’t want to be with you because they are afraid that something will happen to them…’, I had never seen Nisman so concerned.
3. Kirchner and Timerman Have Denied the Charges
Kirchner and Timerman have both denied the allegations. Kirchner said, “If there are delays or a cover-up of A.M.I.A., look somewhere else, not here,” according to the New York Times.
But Kirchner has also said that she believes Nisman may have been killed, but blames factions in the country’s intelligence service that she claims are trying to destabilize her government.
Timerman was interviewed by Stahl for 60 Minutes. Of the allegations that he made a secret deal with the Iranians, Timerman told Stahl:
Well, that’s a lie. That’s a total lie. I never said that. Nisman never showed any evidence that I said that.”
4. A Judge Rejected the Case Against Kirchner and Timerman
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The prosecutor who took over the case after Nisman’s death filed the complaint, but a judge dismissed the case in late February, according to Reuters.
“The judge held that the … complaint was not strong enough to initiate criminal proceedings because it did not support the alleged cover-up or obstruction of the investigation” into the bombing, the judiciary department said in a statement to Reuters.
An appeal has been filed by the new prosecutor, Gerardo Pollicita, ABC News reported. The case will head to the Federal Chamber or Judges.
5. The Bombing Killed 85 and Wounded More Than 300
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The bombing at the center of Nisman’s investigation occurred July 18, 1994. A suicide bomber drove a van loaded with explosives to the Jewish community center, blowing it up and killing 85 people and himself.
The bomber was identified in 2005 as Ibrahim Hussain Berro, a 21-year-old from Lebanon who was a member of the militant group Hezbollah, BBC reported at the time.
