Centro Simon Wiesenthal
Cabello 3872, PB "C" (C1425APR) - Buenos Aires - Argentina
+54 11 4802-1744
info@cswlatinoamerica.org 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wiesenthal Center Expresses Deep Concern on Reversal of President Fernández regarding the Murder of AMIA Bombing Prosecutor Alberto Nisman

“Days before his death, Prosecutor Nisman had dined with us in London. There he showed us documents he planned to reveal in his forthcoming claims to the Argentine Congress. I asked him if he was taking measures for his own security. He laughed jubilantly, stating that “this was the high point of his career”. In no way was he suicidal”

“We register our deep concern, that ‘Nisman and AMIA’ become for the government an unintended setting for antisemitic discourse. These and the so-called ‘Iranian Memorandum’ are not a Jewish issue alone....They must be of concern for Argentina itself”

Buenos Aires and Paris, January 3, 2019

Almost 5 years ago, the Prosecutor conducting the investigation into the 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish Center was found dead in his apartment.

85 were killed and more than 300 injured at the AMIA. The Wiesenthal Center always considered Nisman its “86th victim”

The murder occurred in the early hours of the the day he was due to present to Congress, his documented charges against the then President - and newly elected Vice-Presiden of Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and several of her officials.

Nisman was to claim that they had taken measures to exonerate the five remaining Iranians implicated in the bombing and sought under INTERPOL arrest warrants

Since then, the newly elected President, Alberto Fernández, had argued that Nisman’s death was, indeed  a homicide, and not - as claimed by Kirchner - ‘a suicide’.

“The new administration, under a proclaimed reformation of the judicial system, in less than a month since taking power, have reversed the  Nisman homicide investigation back to its claim of suicide...” declared the Wiesenthal Center’s Director for Latin America, Dr. Ariel Gelblung.

The Center’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, recalled that,“days before his death, Prosecutor Nisman had dined with me, my wife and two friends in London. There he showed us documents he planned to reveal in his forthcoming claims to the Argentine Congress. I asked him if he was taking measures for his own security. He laughed jubilantly, stating that “this was the high point of his career”. In no way was he suicidal...We hope President Fernandez reversed his public position back to that of ‘suicide’ was a bizarre off the cuff response to the just released Netflix film on Nisman”.

The Center’s officials concluded,“As we approach the anniversary of his murder, we register our deep concern, that ‘Nisman and AMIA’ become for the government an unintended setting for antisemitic discourse. These and the so-called ‘Iranian Memorandum’ are not a Jewish issue alone....They must be of concern for Argentina itself”

For further information, please contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at +336 09770158 or Dr. Ariel Gelblung at +54 9 11 49695365.