BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Thousands gathered in Buenos Aires to remember AMIA Jewish center bombing special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, one year after his still-mysterious death.
Journalist Joaquin Morales Sola, prosecutor Ricardo Saenz and Jewish umbrella organization DAIA President Ariel Cohen Sabban were the main speakers at the event Sunday in Plaza Alemania, in the Buenos Aires City neighborhood of Palermo.
“One year ago the most important political crime in Argentinian history happened. I don’t think that it was a suicide. Nisman was murdered,“ Sola, who writes a column in the La Nacion newspaper and has a weekly program on the TN news channel, told the crowd of over 5,000. “In my opinion Nisman was murdered three times: he also was murdered when he was discredited without possibility of defending himself, and also again when the judges didn’t investigate his charges” against the administration of former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Sola said in remarks that were interrupted by applause.
The event was organized by the Jewish political umbrella DAIA and was attended by members of the government, including Vice President Gabriela Michetti – who stood alongside Nisman’s mother, Sara Garfunkel, and several national ministers, as well as foreign diplomatic representatives from the United States, Israel, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic.
Saenz praised Nisman’s work as a fellow prosecutor saying: “he found his death in the exercise of his role as a prosecutor. His work was what we all expected to be done, he asked for the investigation of Iranian citizens and arranged for Interpol to spread international alerts,” Saenz said.
Sabban called for memory and justice in Nisman’s death. “We want to know how the gun was triggered and who did it,” he said.
Nisman daughters, Kala and Iara, in a letter read by their aunt Marcela Arroyo, acknowledged the people’s support for their father. They were received on Sunday morning by President Mauricio Macri, in contrast with former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who never received Nisman’s relatives and never expressed condolences to the Nisman family
Sola also spoke about Nisman’s complaint, filed right before his death. “I want Nisman’s accusation to be reopened and finally investigated,” he said.
One month ago, a federal prosecutor asked an Argentine court to reopen the complaint filed by Nisman charging that de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing.
Nisman’s grave is located in the largest Jewish cemetery in Argentina, in the “Martyrs Section,” where the victims of the AMIA Jewish center attack are buried.
Nisman’s body was found four days after he sued then-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, accusing her government of covering up Iran’s role in the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which left 85 dead and hundreds wounded. Nisman’s lawsuit accused the government of establishing a “parallel communication channel” with Iran in order to “transmit and implement the orders ruled by the President (Kirchner) and, in that way, reach the illicit objectives,” including establishing trade relations.
He was found dead on the floor of his apartment with a bullet to the head just hours before he was to present the evidence to Argentine lawmakers at the National Parliament.
