Fernandez: Lawyer’s death not suicide

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez said she’s “convinced” prosecutor Alberto Nisman did not commit suicide as more questions arose into the death of the man who had accused the president of a cover-up in the nation’s worst terrorist attack.

In a letter published by the state news agency Telam, Fernandez said all the questions about Nisman’s death “have been converted into certainty. The suicide (I’m convinced) was not a suicide.”

The president’s letter contrasts with the one she wrote on Monday saying she believed Nisman took his life.

The 51-year-old Nisman was found slumped in the bathroom of his apartment on Sunday night with a bullet wound in his head. He was lying next to a .22-caliber handgun and a bullet casing.

Four days earlier, Nisman gave a judge a 289-page report alleging Fernandez secretly reached a deal to prevent prosecution of former Iranian officials accused of involvement in the 1994 car bombing of Argentina’s largest Jewish centre.

Fernandez dismissed those accusations in yesterday’s letter.

On Wednesday, a locksmith said the service door was not fully locked at the apartment where Nisman was found shot dead.

Investigators have also revealed the existence of a previously unknown entry as new doubts about what happened continued to pop up.

Viviana Fein, the lead investigator into Nisman’s death, said on Monday the death appeared to be suicide and there were no indications anyone else was involved.

However, family and friends of Nisman immediately rejected the finding and protesters took to the streets demanding justice for the prosecutor, who had spent 10 years investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

Details began trickling out that raise questions about the suicide hypothesis.

No suicide note was found and a test of Nisman’s hand showed no gunpowder residue, though Fein said that may have been due to the small calibre of the gun.

Then the locksmith who opened the back door to give investigators access to Nisman’s apartment said it had not been properly locked, raising speculation about whether a killer might have entered or exited the 13th-story apartment.

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 neighbouring apartment occupied by an unidentified foreigner.

They were investigating a seemingly recent footprint and fingerprint found inside.