Alberto Nisman

Natalio Alberto Nisman (5 December 1963 – 18 January 2015) was an Argentine lawyer who worked as a federal prosecutor, noted for being the chief investigator of the 1994 car bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, the worst terrorist attack in Argentina's history.

The probe into the 1994 terrorist attack against the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) had been marked by judicial misconduct, and had reached an impasse.

Nisman was appointed Special Prosecutor in charge of the AMIA bombing investigation on 13 September 2004.

On October 25, 2006, Nisman formally accused the government of Iran of directing the AMIA bombing, and the Hezbollah militia of carrying it out.

According to the prosecution, Argentina had been targeted by Iran after Buenos Aires' decision to suspend a nuclear technology transfer contract to Tehran.

In November 2007, following the accusation, Interpol published the names of six individuals officially accused for their role in the terrorist attack.

They were entered in the Interpol red notice list: Imad Fayez Moughnieh, Ali Fallahijan, Mohsen Rabbani, Ahmad Reza Asghari, Ahmad Vahidi and Mohsen Rezaee.

Nisman asked in 2008 for the detention of the former President Carlos Menem and Judge Juan José Galeano, who first presided over the AMIA case until his removal in 2004.

WikiLeaks revealed that US diplomats considered that Nisman may have done this so as to be in good standing with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

He was considered a possible candidate for General Prosecutor of the Nation, after the resignation of Esteban Righi during the Boudougate scandal in 2012.

Santiago O'Donnell, a journalist and writer who published the books Argenleaks and Politileaks, both of which analyse the Wikileaks cable leak concerning Argentina's foreign and domestic policies, stated that during his investigation, he found clear and strong ties and "friendship" between Nisman, the CIA and the Embassy of Argentina in Washington, D.C. According to O'Donnell, the cables revealed Nisman had received recommendation from the US embassy to not investigate the Syrian clues in the AMIA bombing and the local connection of the terrorist attack, and that he was instead to assume certain guilt of Iranian suspects, although no trial had been conducted.

Nisman rejected the 2013 memorandum of understanding signed with Iran to investigate the case.

Two years later, he accused President Cristina Kirchner, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and other politicians of covering up Iranian suspects in the case.

The report was largely based on wiretap reports of close allies of Kirchner alleged to be "clearly acting on orders from her" and others, including Mohsen Rabbani, a former cultural attaché at Iran's embassy in Buenos Aires.

The accusation was also based on his stated belief that the administration had petitioned Interpol to lift Red Notices against numerous Iranian officials during said negotiations.

On 18 January 2015, Nisman was found dead at his home in Buenos Aires, one day before he was scheduled to report on his findings, with supposedly incriminating evidence against high-ranking officials of the then-current Argentinian government including former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, regarding the Memorandum of understanding between Argentina and Iran.

Nisman's death was initially ruled a suicide by a group of forensic experts appointed by Argentina's Supreme Court in 2015.

The Secretary-General of Interpol at the time, Ronald Noble, noted on 15 January 2015 that no such requests had been made; "on each occasion that you and I spoke about the Interpol red notices issued in connection to the AMIA case, you stated that Interpol should keep the red notices effective," Noble wrote in an email addressed to Timerman.

On the same day of Nisman's death, a recent interview with Noble was published by the newspaper Página/12; when asked about Nisman's belief and affirmation of the lifting of the Red Notices, Noble declared: "Prosecutor Nisman's assertion is false."

Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas dismissed the complaint, resubmitted to the courts by Federal Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita, on 26 February.

"The judge believes the minimum conditions to launch a criminal investigation have not been met, based on what the prosecutor presented," the Judicial Information Centre (CIJ) said in a statement.

Rafecas noted in his ruling that "none of the two hypotheses of a crime put forward by prosecutor Pollicita in his writ stand up to the minimum level of scrutiny."

Pollicita did not succeed Nisman as chief AMIA prosecutor; this office was headed as of 13 February by Sabrina Namer, Patricio Sabadini, Roberto Salum, and the prosecution task force coordinator, Juan Murray.

Nisman was found dead at his home in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, on 18 January 2015 next to a Bersa Thunder 22 handgun, just hours before he was due to appear before Congress to discuss the allegations, and six days after publishing the 288-page report.

According to the autopsy, Nisman had died the previous afternoon and had an entry bullet wound on the right temple with no exit wound.

His body was found inside the bathroom, blocking the door, and there were no signs of forced entry or robbery in the apartment.

Nonetheless, a locksmith who arrived at Nisman's apartment was quoted as stating that he found a hidden entrance to the apartment open upon his arrival.

The death of Nisman is under investigation by federal judge Emma Palmaghini and special prosecutor Viviana Fein.

In 2017, Nisman's death was later determined to have been a homicide by a forensic group of the Gendarmerie.

In December 2017, Cristina Kirchner was indicted for treason by judge Claudio Bonadio.

A 2017 report determined that the cause of death was murder, a conclusion which federal courts accepted in 2018.

In March 2018, it was announced that she would be put on trial for an alleged cover-up of Iran's role in the AMIA bombing (the "treason" charge was later dropped from the accusation) through the intended never-ratified Memorandum of understanding between Argentina and Iran.

After analyzing the claims of the defendants in the case for the never-ratified Memorandum with Iran, on October 7, 2021, the Federal Oral Court 8 declared the case null and void.

The judges concluded that there was no crime in the signing of the agreement with Iran and declared a judicial dismissal of Cristina Kirchner and the other defendants.

Alberto Nisman was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Buenos Aires.

He started his career as a prosecutor in Morón, Buenos Aires.

He was married to judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, with whom he had two daughters.

Nisman was a non-observant Jew.

He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires and served as a law clerk at the National Tribunals Courthouse.

He was later appointed prosecutor in the suburban Morón, Buenos Aires, district.