The journalist who broke the news of the death of the Argentine prosecutor investigating the bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish community center, landed in Israel on Sunday after fleeing Argentina. Damian Pachter, a journalist with the Buenos Aires Herald, was the first journalist to report on the death of state prosecutor Alberto Nisman last week. Nisman had been investigating the deadly 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. "The Argentinean government persuade [sic] me because of my news report regarding the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who died in unresolved way last week, so I was the first who report on that and now I am kind of suffering the consequences of that," said Pachter. "They [the Argentine government] use their security forces to chase me and I just had to move fast and quick, as fast as I could in order to get into a plan and just leave the country right away." Pachter said the case would not be solved because political interests are in the way, and he came to Israel because it is a safe place. "I came to Israel because I am an Israeli citizen. I lived here the most important years of my life, and this is a place where I feel safe," Pachter said. Argentine newspaper Clarin reported that he had already received death threats. State prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his apartment late on Jan. 18, with a gunshot wound to his head and a 22 caliber pistol by his side along with a single shell casing. He had been scheduled to appear before Congress the following day to answer questions about his allegation that Argentine President Cristina Fernandez conspired to derail his investigation into the attack. His death and a storm of conspiracy theories around it have rocked Argentina. Argentina suspects rogue agents from its own intelligence services were behind Nisman's death. The government says Nisman's allegations and his death were linked to a power struggle at Argentina's intelligence agency and agents who were recently fired. Argentine courts have accused a group of Iranians of planting the 1994 bomb, which killed 85 people. Nisman had claimed that Fernandez opened a secret back channel to Iran to cover up Tehran's alleged involvement in the bombing and gain access to Iranian oil needed to help close Argentina's $7 billion per year energy deficit. Fernandez's government called the accusation absurd. Meanwhile, Prosecutor Viviana Fein, who is leading the investigation into Nisman's death, said that autopsy findings indicate that the gun was shot at Nisman's head from no more than a centimeter (less than half an inch) away, in contrast to earlier reports suggesting a distance of 20 centimeters (7.9 inches), which would have made suicide unlikely. She said the investigation team is currently treating the death as a suicide, but has not ruled out the possibility of forced suicide.
Credit: Reuters
Upon landing at Ben-Gurion International Airport, Pachter told Reuters that he had left Argentina in fear for his life.
Journalist who broke news of Argentina prosecutor's death flees to Israel
"I came to Israel because I am an Israeli citizen. I lived here the most important years of my life, and this is a place where I feel safe," says journalist Damian Pachter, who fled Argentina after breaking the news of prosecutor Alberto Nisman's death.
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