A team of forensic analysts has determined that Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor who claimed that the former President of Argentina covered up Iran’s role in the deadly bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center, was murdered and did not commit suicide, JTA reported Thursday, citing local media.
A new toxicology report on Nisman’s body found traces of the drug ketamine, an anesthetic used on animals, and posited that at least one other person forcefully held him down around the time of his death, the Infobae digital news outlet and the TN cable news network said.
The team of investigators plans to present the report next week to Eduardo Taiano, the lead prosecutor looking into the circumstances of Nisman’s death. Taiano will then decide how to present the evidence to the Justice Department, according to JTA.
Nisman, who was Jewish, was found dead from a gunshot wound in his apartment in January 2015, the day before he was supposed to present a report on the 1992 AMIA Jewish center bombing to Argentine lawmakers.
It has been revealed that Nisman had drafted arrest warrants for then President Cristina Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman before he was found dead.
Those warrants charged that Kirchner orchestrated a secret deal to cover up Iranian officials' alleged role in the attack. She denies the allegations.
Previous scientific tests showed that Nisman likely did not shoot himself, but the case languished until last year, when it was moved to a federal court that handles political murder cases.
After Nisman's death was initially labelled a suicide, his family – who insists he was murdered – commissioned its own independent forensic investigation.