Death of Argentine Prosecutor Alberto Nisman Ruled a Homicide

By Daniel Uria 

A federal judge charged IT security expert Diego Lagomarsino with accessory to murder in the death

of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisma on Tuesday. Photo by sebra/Shutterstock

UPI -- A federal judge in Argentina ruled the 2015 death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman was a homicide.

Judge Julian Ercolini charged IT security expert Diego Lagomarsino with accessory to murder on Tuesday as part of his 656-page ruling regarding the death of Nisman, marking the first time the incident was referred to as a murder.

"The death of Prosecutor Nisman was not a suicide, and was brought about by a third party and in a painful manner," Ercolini said in the ruling.

Ercolini said Nisman was killed with a weapon belonging to Lagomarsino, who was also the last person inside his apartment, where he was found dead from a gunshot wound to his head, on Jan. 18, 2015.

Lagomarsino previously admitted the bullet that killed Nisman came from a handgun he owned, but said Nisman asked to borrow the weapon after receiving threats against him and his daughters.

Lagomarsino said the courts should judge him for lending Nisman the gun if he "committed a crime" but said "I have nothing to do with the rest."

Nisman was killed days after he filed a report accusing former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and other officials of covering up Iran's involvement in a 1994 Jewish community center bombing that left 85 people dead and more than 300 injured.

Kirchner, 64, was charged with treason on Dec. 7 as part of an ongoing investigation into the bombing.

Ercolini said there were numerous events that caused public officials to "publicly push the idea of suicide" following Nisman's death, which created an "almost unambiguous public certainty that Nisman had taken his own life."

He added while he accused Lagomarsino of role in the homicide the actual perpetrators "remain unknown."

Ercolini also indicted four of Nisman's bodyguards -- Ruben Benitez, Nestor Duran, Armando Niz and Luis Mino -- accusing them of negligence and failing to detect when the shooting happened, which he said allowed the perpetrators to leave the scene undetected.

So they were either grossly incompetent, or complicit.