A major judicial development has shaken Argentina, as the former prosecutor who initially directed the investigation into the mysterious 2015 death of Alberto Nisman has been formally charged with obstructing justice, JTA reports.
The high-profile case has long unnerved the local Jewish community and international observers seeking answers for the prominent investigator’s demise.
Viviana Fein was indicted on May 12 on charges of aggravated concealment regarding her management of the inquiry into Nisman’s death. Nisman had been serving as a special prosecutor appointed to investigate the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, an atrocity that claimed 85 lives.
On January 18, 2015, Nisman was discovered dead in his Buenos Aires apartment with a bullet hole above his right ear, having been shot at point-blank range. His body was found just hours before he was slated to present explosive evidence before Argentinian lawmakers. His testimony was set to accuse then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and other high-ranking officials of allegedly covering up Iran’s role in the AMIA attack.
Fein originally declared Nisman’s death a suicide, later modifying her stance in May 2016 to suggest he may have been forced to kill himself. However, a 2017 forensic report decisively concluded that Nisman was assassinated, a position that Jewish institutions have firmly maintained for years.
Under the Argentine Penal Code, aggravated concealment applies to an individual who did not participate in the primary crime but later helped the perpetrators cover their tracks. In the indictment, Judge Julián Ercolini stated that the former prosecutor failed to properly preserve the crime scene at Nisman’s apartment. The judge noted that she permitted dozens of people to enter and exit the apartment without proper controls, which potentially contaminated evidence and compromised the investigation.
This controversy has persisted for years, with subsequent judicial investigations and expert reports describing the apartment as chaotic in the hours following the tragedy. Fein, who faces up to three years in prison if convicted, maintains her innocence.
The prosecution of Fein unfolds as Argentina’s government adopts a newly aggressive posture against Iran and Hezbollah, the entities widely understood to have orchestrated the AMIA bombing. Since the 2023 election of Javier Milei, a conservative supporter of Israel, the South American nation has officially declared Iran and Hezbollah responsible for both the AMIA massacre and the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy. Furthermore, Milei’s administration has designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization and decided to pursue a trial in absentia for the Iranian suspects.
(Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shavuot in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
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