Argentine prosecutor says colleague was murdered

By Sergio García

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - A prosecutor in Argentina has asked a judge investigating the death of his colleague to refrain from characterizing the case as a dubious death.

Eduardo Taiano filed a motion asking judge Julian Ercolini to consider murder in the death of Alberto Nisman and to investigate computer technician and Nisman’s assistant Diego Lagomarsino, an alleged accomplice in the crime.

“Natalio Alberto Nisman was the victim of a homicide”, Taiano said in the nearly 1,200-page document, according to Argentine news agency Telam.

The dossier suggests Lagomarsino collaborated to execute the “criminal plan” to kill Nisman, who was investigating an alleged government cover-up of a terror attack.

But Taiano did not ask that Lagomarsino be detained, instead requesting the judge to force the technician to be present in court whenever he was required by legal proceedings.

Lagomarsino is the only person currently being investigated for the death of the former prosecutor. The gun used to kill Nisman belonged to the technician.

Lagomarsino contends he loaned the weapon to the lawyer for his safety because he feared for Nisman and his family’s lives.

Ercolini ordered a sub judice in the case that implies the plaintiff and Nisman’s defense will not have access to the document.

Nisman was found dead in his apartment on Jan. 18, 2015 in the upscale Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

His body was found four days after he said he had evidence of an alleged cover-up by the government of those responsible for an attack in 1994 on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

Prosecutors investigating that case have summoned former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to be questioned about her alleged participation in the cover-up.

Fernandez was cited along with former Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and 12 others.

Eighty-five people were killed in the car bomb attack while 300 others were injured.

*Daniela Mendoza contributed to this article.