"No one believes the suicide hypothesis," one of Nisman's investigative team told Reuters, [6] adding that, "he was very convinced of his ideas and prepared to see them through. He had received threats all his life and it never intimidated him." With the news of no gunpowder residue sinking in, and protests rising, even Argentina's President is now uncomfortably admitting it, saying on Thursday that she was "convinced" Nisman's death was not a suicide, explaining that people had led him astray in his investigation in order to smear her name and then "needed him dead." However, instead of vowing to shed light on the matter, Fernandez and her government have been on the defensive, trying to refute Nisman's claims against her. Neighboring Uruguay said it felt sorry for Argentina and that its justice system needs to clear up the case to maintain "the minimal confidence our societies need." Questions abound...
As Reuters explains [6],
Some have suggested Nisman may have killed himself after realizing his report was based on false evidence. It was met last week with criticism that it relied too heavily on hearsay.
New findings over the past few days have cast doubt over Nisman's state of mind.
Friends and colleagues say he appeared upbeat. When one asked him via Whatsapp on Saturday afternoon how he was getting on, his response was a photo of piles of documents and highlighters.
To a journalist for Clarin newspaper, Nicolas Winaski, he wrote "Everything will be known, Nicolas, you will see", saying that he was "calm" and adding a smiley face to his message.
But that same day, Nisman asked to borrow a gun from a colleague, apparently saying he needed it for self-protection even though media reports say he already had guns registered in his name. The borrowed gun was the one found by his body.
The case keeps taking new twists.
While the security ministry originally said it found Nisman's flat locked from the inside, suggesting he was alone, the locksmith who forced entrance into the flat said the door was merely pulled shut with the keys in the lock.
The prosecutor probing the case has called for patience. She is waiting to talk with Nisman's doctors and see the results of toxicological and psychopathological checks, and said she would not be influenced by the president's comments.
"She is free to have an opinion like any citizen," Viviana Fein said. "I am focused on my investigation, on what I will achieve and discover along with the judge working with me."
Argentines say they have already waited more than 20 years for answers to the 1994 bombing and they fear justice won't be done for Nisman either.
Whatever the outcome of the investigation is, the crisis has hurt the leftist Fernandez.
While thousands of protesters gathered outside her residence this week, some shouting "murderer", more sober critics have attacked her handling of the matter.
So far, she has limited her response to rambling Facebook posts.
But, as Reuters adds, [6] questions abound.
Why would Nisman kill himself on the eve of the hearing in Congress after dedicating years to investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and believing he was on the cusp of proving a cover-up at the highest levels of government?
If Nisman was so much under threat as to warrant the police assigning him 10 bodyguards, why was none of them in the building at the time?
When they could not contact him all of Sunday, why did they wait for his mother to arrive with a spare key in the evening rather than force the door open?
"The causes of the death are not clear ... and clarification is today an imperative of maximum priority for all of Argentine society," the president of the Jewish Association AMIA, Leonardo Jmelnitzky, said at an event in front of the center that was bombed in 1994.
* * *
And the case has convulsed Argentina and set off a storm of conspiracy theories, many pointing at Fernandez herself, Argentine intelligence services, or Iran, or all three.
Social unrest is rising...
[7]
