Argentina judge says death of prosecutor Nisman was murder

BUENOS AIRES – Alberto Nisman, the Argentine prosecutor who was found dead days after accusing former President Cristina Fernandez of covering up Iran's role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center, was murdered, a federal judge said on Tuesday.

In a 656-page ruling, Judge Julian Ercolini said there was sufficient proof to conclude that the shot to the head that killed Nisman in January 2015 was not self-inflicted. That marked the first time any judge has said the case was a murder.

Fernandez and others had suggested the death was a suicide, but a prosecutor investigating the case last year recommended it be pursued as a murder probe.

"Nisman's death could not have been a suicide," Ercolini wrote in Tuesday's ruling, which also charged Diego Lagomarsino, a former employee of Nisman's, with accessory to murder.