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ARGENTINA | 15-11-2017 11:58

Key suspect deflects blame on 'domineering' boss Nisman

Lagomarsino told the court investigating Nisman's 2015 death that the prosecutor "ruined his life" and held the upper hand in a "slave-master" relationship.

A key figure in the mysterious 2015 murder of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman told the courts on Tuesday that Nisman “ruined his life” and had held the upper hand in a “slave-master” relationship.


Diego Lagomarsino, an IT specialist, had worked with Nisman during his investigation into the cover-up of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in downtown Buenos Aires which killed 85 people.


Lagomarsino gave testimony to federal judge Julión Ercolini over 10 hours on Tuesday. He said Nisman used to call him up to “30 times per day.” He also insisted that he was simply fulfilling a duty when he lent Nisman the 22-calibre handgun found at the scene of the crime which experts proved as the source of the bullet found lodged in the late prosecutor's head.  


His statement comes days after Prosecutor Eduardo Taiano formally concluded before the court that Nisman’s death on January 18, 2015 in his Puerto Madero apartment was murder and not a “suspicious death”.


Taiano's opinion said he suspects Lagomarsino left the gun in Nisman's apartment so the actual killer or killers could use it and make the murder appear to be a suicide.


Not alone in the eye of the storm 


Nisman’s death occurred four days after he formally accused then-President Cristina Fernandez of covering up Iranian officials’ role in Argentina’s worst terrorist attack. He claimed Fernandez and other senior officials had brokered the deal in exchange for favorable deals on oil and other goods from Iran.


Fernandez has always insisted she had nothing to with a cover-up or with Nisman’s death, while Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in the bombing.


Taiano has summoned Nisman’s former bodyguards Rubén Fabián Benítez, Néstor Oscar Durán, Luis Ismael Miño y Armando Niz to testify on Novemebr 20 and 21 on charges of breach of their duties. The bodyguards are accused of having abandoned their posts around the time of Nisman's death.


- TIMES/AP

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