BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) – A sophisticated test found no gunpowder on the hands of AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, whose shooting death remains unexplained.
The release of the test results came as dozens of cities in 28 countries confirmed that they will hold rallies on Feb. 18 to mark the passing of one month since Nisman was found dead in his Buenos Aires apartment.
The microscopic electron scanning test conducted Tuesday in a specialized laboratory in northern Argentina is the second test in search of a trace of gunpowder.
Nisman’s body was found on Jan. 18, hours before he was to present evidence to Argentine lawmakers that President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires that left 85 dead and hundreds wounded.
Explanations range from suicide to an attempted operation against the government.
The new discovery seems to support the hypothesis that the prosecutor could have been murdered, though some experts explained on Wednesday on Argentine news programs that the .22-caliber Bersa pistol that killed Nisman is a type of gun that sometimes does not leave traces of gunpowder.
In an interview published Tuesday in the Washington Post, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman defended the memorandum of understanding signed by Argentina and Iran to jointly investigate the Islamic Republic’s involvement in the AMIA bombing. Timerman said that his government does not gain anything with Nisman’s death and revealed that the United States did not want to push the AMIA issue in negotiations with Iran.
Timerman told the Post that he asked the Argentine ambassador to Washington to send a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry “asking that they include the AMIA case in their negotiations with the Iranians. They told us that it was not possible.”
Meanwhile, AMIA said it will participate in the Feb. 18 rally for justice organized by the judicial employees union and prosecutors in memory of Nisman.
In the United States, cities that will hold rallies include Miami Beach, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Houston and San Francisco.
Worldwide, cities holding rallies include Paris, Athens, Toronto, Montreal, Sydney, Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Santiago, Bogota, Rome, Milan, Tokyo, Oslo, Lima, Caracas and Bern.
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