Argentina President Calls Iran Prosecutor's 2015 Death a 'Murder' by 'Darkest Forces'

The administration of Argentinian President Javier Milei marked the 10th anniversary of prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death on Saturday, 18 January, by issuing a statement that referred to his “murder” as a crime perpetrated by Argentina’s “darkest” forces.

“The Office of the President vehemently remembers the 10th anniversary of the murder of Federal Prosecutor for the UFI-AMIA, Alberto Nisman, at the hands of the darkest forces of power,” read the statement published on Milei’s official X account on Saturday.

Nisman was found dead from a gunshot wound in his apartment in Puerto Madero on January 18, 2015, under circumstances that remain shrouded in mystery.

An initial official investigation concluded that the prosecutor had taken his own life. However, a federal judge later overturned the ruling, determining that the gunshot wound could not have been self-inflicted.

After years of legal wrangling and multiple court reviews debating theories of suicide versus homicide, the current judicial stance maintains that Nisman was murdered.

In the days leading up to his death, Nisman had accused then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and several former government officials of orchestrating a cover-up to shield the Iranian government from accountability in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The attack, which left 85 people dead, remains Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack. Nisman had been tasked with investigating the bombing.

The special prosecutor’s body was discovered the night before he was scheduled to present evidence supporting his allegations to Congress.

A new report submitted by a federal prosecutor last week bolsters the theory that Nisman’s murder was linked to his work with the AMIA Attack Investigation Unit (UFI-AMIA), which aimed to identify those responsible for the bombing.

“The Government remains confident that the Judiciary will continue its investigations so that Prosecutor Nisman’s murder does not go unpunished,” the Argentine government’s statement added.

It also urged the judiciary to pursue the “lines of investigation” into Nisman’s original accusations against Kirchner and her administration.

“On January 18, 2015, the prosecutor was preparing to present before the Congress of the Nation the details of a complaint he had made publicly against then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and other officials,” the statement continued.

The government reiterated that Nisman had “accused them of abuse of authority and violation of the duties of a public official in relation to their actions to leave those responsible for the terrorist attack on the AMIA unpunished.”

Members of President Milei’s Press Office told IranWire that “the President reaffirms his commitment to ensuring justice for the victims of the AMIA bombing, for which he has presented to Congress a ‘Trial in Absentia’ bill to ensure that those responsible for the worst terrorist attack in Argentine history do not escape justice.”

In addition to the president’s statement, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, a longtime advocate for justice in the Nisman case, emphasized the administration’s stance. Bullrich, who in 2015 was among the lawmakers supporting Nisman’s congressional testimony, posted on X, “Today, as nine years ago, we continue, alongside the Judiciary, in the pursuit of the killers of Prosecutor Nisman.”