Dead prosecutor Nisman 'planned president's arrest'

Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman drafted an arrest warrant for President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, according to the woman investigating Mr Nisman's mysterious death.

Lead investigator Viviana Fein said the draft warrant was found in a rubbish bin in Mr Nisman's apartment complex.

Mr Nisman was found dead in his Buenos Aires apartment last month, with a single bullet wound to the head.

Investigators have yet to establish if he killed himself, or was murdered.

Mr Nisman had been investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people.

He died hours before he was due to testify in Congress against President Fernandez, whom he had accused of covering up alleged Iranian involvement in the 1994 attack.

President Fernandez has denied the allegation. Iran has also denied involvement in the attack.

U-turns

 

Ms Fein told a local radio station on Tuesday that the draft warrant was "on file", and that a previous statement from her office saying that no such draft had been found was "erroneous".

Opposition newspaper Clarin had published a copy of the draft on Monday.

The document, dating from June 2014, requested the arrest of President Fernandez and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman.

However, it was not included in a 300-page report submitted by Mr Nisman to a federal court days before his death.

Under Argentine law, the president and the foreign minister could only be arrested if Congress first lifted the immunity granted to them as members of the executive.