Argentinian Jewish community demands US reveal whereabouts of former spy chief

Nisman was found dead in his apartment earlier this year, only hours before he was due to testify to Congress.

By SAM SOKOL, SAM SOKOL
Alberto Nisman (photo credit: REUTERS)
Alberto Nisman
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Argentine Jewish community has requested that the United States reveal the whereabouts of their country’s former spymaster – who reportedly fled to Miami in January following the shooting death of a Jewish prosecutor investigating the 1994 car bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
According to a report by the Telam news agency, representatives of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina hand-delivered a letter to American Ambassador Noah Mamet, asking that Washington turn over information relating to Antonio “Jaime” Stiuso, who is wanted for questioning by their country’s government.
Such a request is “consistent with our ongoing concern in the search for memory, truth and justice for the terrorist attack” against AMIA, the letter declared.
According to The Buenos Aires Herald, Stiuso worked closely with prosecutor Alberto Nisman, the Jewish government prosecutor who had been tasked with looking into the decadesold bombing. Nisman was found dead in his apartment earlier this year, only hours before he was due to testify to Congress regarding allegations that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had attempted to interfere with his investigation.
Last year an Argentine court struck down as unconstitutional an agreement with Iran for the formation of a joint Truth Commission to investigate the bombing. Many believe that the Iranians played a role in the bombing, and Argentinean courts have previously called for the extradition of several Iranians suspected of involvement in the attack.
Stiuso fled shortly thereafter.
Fernandez and her ministers say that Stiuso duped Nisman into fabricating unfounded allegations to destabilize the government and then needed him dead, and have previously questioned whether the spy chief was working for the United States.
Last month the results of new tests on the gun believed to have killed Alberto Nisman appear to negate the possibility that the AMIA special prosecutor committed suicide. The new tests seem to support the theory that someone else shot Nisman and cleaned away the incriminating handprints.
Earlier this year Argentina’s legislature approved a bill to compensate the victims of the bombing attack.
The bill provides for a one-time compensation to the estates of the 85 people killed and to those who suffered serious wounds in the terrorist attack.
The compensation for the relatives of those killed in the 1994 bombing will be about $170,000 for each victim. For the hundreds whose wounds were “extremely grievous,” the reparation is set at 70 percent of that amount, and those with “grievous” wounds will receive 60% of that amount.
JTA and Reuters contributed to this report.