Nisman case: board of coroners suspended

Buenos Aires Herald

The investigation into the death of AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman reached another dead end after Judge Fabiana Palmaghini officially suspended the board of coroners that was set to analyze today differences between the Supreme Court’s coroners’ board that conducted the autopsy on the prosecutor’s body on January 19 and a board of medical and forensic experts picked by Nisman’s ex-wife, Federal Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado.

Palmaghini will now have to rule on Arroyo Salgado’s request to declare null and void this board of coroners. But first, prosecutor Viviana Fein — the head investigator into the death of the AMIA prosecutor — will have to file an “incident report” that must include the opinion by the lawyer of Diego Lagomarsino, the man who lent Nisman the gun that killed him.

Only then Palmaghini will be able to accept or reject the request by Nisman’s ex-wife to declare null and void this board of experts.

On top of that, the judge should decide on the recusation request against Fein filed on Friday by Arroyo Salgado.

Judicial sources quoted by state-run news agency Télam said Palmaghini is likely to resolve both requests after the Easter Holidays.

On the other hand, sources close to the investigation told Télam that Fein has already received the expert report on the DNA on Nisman’s fingernails, which turned out “negative” for genetic traces of another individual, which would confirm the hypothesis that Nisman did not have contact with another person at the time of his death.

LAGOMARSINO AGAINST

ARROYO SALGADO

Also yesterday, Lagomarsino’s lawyer Maximiliano Rusconi lashed out against Arroyo Salgado, saying he was “ashamed” of the actions carried out by the San Isidro federal judge.

Nisman’s ex-wife “should define her strategy, what game she’s playing,” Rusconi told Radio del Plata. “I have no idea what she’s doing, it’s a disgrace.”

Regarding the bank account Nisman and Lagomarsino — his employee at the UFI-AMIA special investigation unit — shared in New York, the lawyer of the information technology expert said the true nature of that commercial relationship shall be revealed “once the mother and the sister of Nisman come forward to give their testimony.”

Lagomarsino, the only person indicted in the Nisman case, had suggested the AMIA special prosecutor asked him to deposit half of his monthly salary in that account.

Weeks ago, Arroyo Salgado accused Lagomarsino (who lent Nisman the .22-calibre Bersa that killed him in January) of “hiding something.”