Argentina’s Public Prosecutor Alberto Nisman giving a news conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina on May 20, 2009. ( Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — A memorial to Argentine special prosecutor Alberto Nisman included a tribute to the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks.
A prayer for peace opened Wednesday’s event in front of the Libertad Temple, the oldest synagogue in Argentina. The ecumenical prayer was delivered by a Catholic priest, a rabbi and a Muslim leader, whose prayer in Arabic was “for those who pay with their lives in the struggle for justice and democracy.”
“It’s very important to see three religions praying together today, three gods together talking together, tolerating each other,” said Spanish journalist Pilar Rahola, the main speaker at the event, which drew hundreds of participants. “This is the value of the freedom. It is a tribute to the victims of France and to all the victims of terrorism: the gods are always gods of tolerance and freedom and not machines of death.”
Nisman was found shot dead in his Buenos Aires apartment in January hours before he was to present evidence to Argentine lawmakers that President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the AMIA bombing. Forensic experts have differed on the cause of death, with some believing it was suicide and others murder. Prosecutor Viviana Fein has yet to release a final ruling.
Nisman had accused Iran of building clandestine intelligence stations in South American countries from which to launch terror attacks.
His mother, Sara Garfunkel, participated in the tribute along with members of Memoria Nisman, a group that organizes a commemoration of the prosecutor’s death on the 18th of every month.
