Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner now admits that the death of AMIA terror bombing investigator Alberto Nisman was not a suicide. But now Kirchner claims that
Nisman was murdered to frame her.
The government says two key witnesses in Nisman's case against the president had been falsely presented to him as state intelligence agents.
Fernandez said the deception discredited Nisman's charges against her and points to a conspiracy to smear her name.
"They used him while he was alive and then they needed him dead," she said in an open letter to the country, adding that his death was "sad and terrible".
She did not say who killed him and no one has been arrested in the case, which has shocked Argentines. Social media networks are seething with conspiracy theories, some pointing at Fernandez and her government.
Thousands took to the streets this week to protest the slow pace of justice for the victims of the bombing and demanding answers to the questions around Nisman's death.
Fernandez again defended herself in a Facebook post on Thursday.
"Nisman's accusation not only collapses, but becomes a real political and legal scandal ... That's the key. Prosecutor Nisman did not know that the men identified as intelligence agents were in fact not," she said.
"The spies who were not spies. The questions that turned into certainties. The suicide that I am now convinced was not a suicide."
But there are a lot of suspicious things happening here. One of them is the fact that
Nisman's apartment has a back door that was unlocked - contradicting earlier reports that Nisman's apartment was locked from the inside. The existence of a third door only rouses more suspicions.
Lead prosecutor Viviana Fein said there was no evidence
of anyone else involved in the death, but said Nisman left no suicide
note. A test of his hand showed no residue of gunpowder, though she said
that may have been due to the small caliber of the gun. The fact that
national Security Secretary Sergio Berni quickly turned up in the
apartment also fed doubts.
Moreover, the locksmith who opened the back door to
give investigators access to the home where Nisman was found dead said
it was barely closed, raising questions about whether a killer might
have entered or exited what was earlier described as a 13th-story
apartment locked from the inside.
After testifying to investigators, the man who gave
his name only as Walter said he was able to quickly open the door with a
hook. He added, "If someone entered or not, I don't know."
The official news agency Telam, meanwhile, said
investigators had found a third access to the home, a narrow passage
holding air conditioning equipment that connects to a neighboring
apartment occupied by an unidentified foreigner. They were investigating
a seemingly recent footprint and fingerprint found inside.
Opposition politicians have
denounced Kirchner's claim that Nisman was murdered to frame her.
Opposition leaders denounced Kirchner's statements as an opportunistic about-face.
"It's very serious. To go from supporting the thesis of a suicide, to an assassination, she must assume the consequences," said Senator Ernesto Sanz, a member of the opposition.
Another Kirchner opponent, deputy Francisco de Narvaez, expressed outrage that Kirchner would take a position on such a sensitive matter while an investigation was underway.
"You do not have the right to trample on the independence of the judiciary in this tragedy. I ask you to stop acting like an adolescent trying to gain influence through your Facebook account," he said.
I would bet on Kirchner being involved. The question is how to prove it.
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