Argentine lawyer and federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman [7] was the victim of murder according to Criminal Appeals Court Prosecutor Ricardo Sáenz in a Feb. 25 decision. The declaration is the first time [8] a judicial authority has suggested the death as a homicide since the mysterious tragedy in January 2015. Sáenz recommended that the case be handed to federal authorities and investigated as a murder. The prosecutor wrote that he agreed with the assassination theory [9] that Nisman's family presented in a complaint to the appeals court in Buenos Aires and that all the evidence points to Nisman's death as a murder, not a suicide [10]. Judge and Nisman's former wife, Sandra Arroyo Salgado, also maintains that the case be handed over to federal authorities in order to fulfill their role as the country's institution for investigating the suspicious death of a public servant. The court will evaluate Sáenz's findings on March 18.
From Jurist [11], Feb. 26. Used with permission.
Note: At the time of his death, Nisman was investigating the deadly 1994 bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA [12]). After his murder, protesters mobilized to demand an investigation of the possible role of then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in covering up the involvement of Iranian agents in the 1994 attack.
