US leaders push Argentine president on case of slain Jewish prosecutor

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(JTA) — President Donald Trump and members of Congress asked Argentine President Mauricio Macri about the ongoing investigation into the death of Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor looking into the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing.

Macri said Thursday that the issue had been raised in three meetings he held this week during an official visit to Washington, D.C.

“The subject came up in our three meetings — at the lunch with the president and in Congress by a senator and a representative,” Macri told reporters. “And I reaffirmed Argentina’s absolute commitment to find the truth, to clarify the death of the prosecutor, and the complaint he made. Because that is part of the building of a society that does not accept impunity and that works for the truth to arise.”

Nisman in his investigation of the Buenos Aires attack, which killed 85 and injured 300, accused the former Argentine government, led by Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, of covering up Iran’s role and trying to derail the probe. Nisman, who was Jewish, was just hours away from a scheduled appearance before Argentine lawmakers to brief them on his accusations when he was found shot dead in his apartment. The cause of death — suicide or murder — has not been determined.

In March 2016, former President Barack Obama offered Argentina help in pursuing the perpetrators of the bombing.

“I told President Macri that the United States offers whatever help we can to finally hold these attackers accountable,” Obama said during a visit to Buenos Aires.

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