An Argentine judge says the prosecutor who was found dead just days after accusing former President Cristina Fernandez of covering up Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center was murdered.

Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found with a fatal gunshot wound to his head just hours before he was due to appear before Congress to detail the allegations against Fernandez.

Fernandez and others had suggested Nisman’s death was suicide.

But in a 656-page ruling released on December 26, Judge Julian Ercolini said there is sufficient proof to conclude the shot to the head that killed Nisman in January 2015 was not self-inflicted.

It is the first time any judge has said the case was murder.

Fernandez, now a senator, was indicted for treason earlier in December over Nisman’s allegations that she worked behind the scenes to clear Iran of blame for the attack on the AMIA Jewish center in a bid to normalize relations and secure a 2013 grain-for-oil deal with Tehran.

Tehran has denied links to the attack, which killed 85 people.

Ercolini on December 26 also charged Diego Lagomarsino, a former employee of Nisman’s, with accessory to murder.

Lagomarsino says he lent Nisman the gun that killed him. But he said Nisman asked him for the gun to protect himself and his family.

Source » rferl