Dramatic testimony by a former Argentinian spy has shifted the investigation into the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman towards the presumption that he was murdered.



Antonio Stiuso – a senior intelligence official who worked closely with Nisman before his death in January 2015 – returned from self-imposed exile to give a marathon 17-hour court statement on Monday that looks likely to put renewed pressure on former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

His full testimony remains sealed, but domestic media have published what they say are extracts in which Stiuso accuses a group close to the former government of carrying out the murder and tampering with evidence from the crime scene.

“The author of all this madness was that woman, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner,” Stiuso told the judge, according to Infobae.

The allegations are not confirmed, nor has any supporting evidence been published, but the former spy chief’s testimony has been enough to prompt a change of heart by Judge Fabiana Palmaghina, who previously defended the possibility of a suicide.



After hearing Stiuso’s testimony, Palmaghina – who has presided over the Nisman investigation since its beginning – referred the case to a higher federal court as a likely homicide.

Explaining her decision, she cited the “extensive” contamination of the crime scene by at least 20 people and the apparent tampering with Nisman’s computers and phones in the first hours of the investigation. “These can’t have been all coincidences or mistakes,” she said.

A shift in the political winds is also likely to have shaped her decision. Palmaghina’s volte-face follows a ruling by federal appeals court prosecutor Ricardo Sáenz on Monday that the case should be relabelled a homicide, accepting an appeal by Nisman’s family.

Spies, cover-ups and the mysterious death of an Argentinian prosecutor Read more

It also follows a promise by recently elected President Mauricio Macri to end the logjam in the investigation by declassifying documents and encouraging intelligence officials to testify.



None will be more important than Stiuso, former operations chief of the disbanded spy agency who worked closely with Nisman before his death.

The prosecutor was found lying in the bathroom of his rented apartment with a gunshot wound to his head, the day before he was due to appear before congress to present allegations that then-president Fernández had secretly negotiated with Iran to obtain trade concessions in return for camouflaging Iran’s role in a terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires at a Jewish community centre in 1994 that killed 85 people and left hundreds wounded.

“[Nisman’s] death was intimately linked to the work he was doing,” Stiuso told the judge, according to an extract released by the court.

He also mentioned rogue elements in the intelligence community and warned of the dangers posed by Iranian agents.

“With the Iranians, it’s irrelevant whether or not you have bodyguards, because if you are a target they study you, they study and get to know your movements. Having bodyguards is pointless when these people are your enemy.”

“It was shocking testimony,” said Juan Pablo Vigliero, the lawyer representing Nisman’s two teenage daughters who was present at Monday’s hearing. “When you hear it and see it written up in the judicial file you say: Wow, how could this be?” he told reporters.

But it is unlikely to convince both sides of the political divide. Stiuso himself is a controversial and enigmatic figure who for decades is reputed to have commanded a vast eavesdropping network that made him the most feared man in Argentina.

He joined the service in 1972 at the age of 18, slowly rising to become its most powerful agent. According to various press reports Stiuso ran a wiretapping network that fed Fernández and her since-deceased husband and predecessor in office, Néstor Kirchner, secret information on their political opponents.

Stiuso’s relationship with Fernández reportedly soured after Fernández decided to seek an understanding with Iran after almost 20 years of difficult relations following the 1994 blast that Nisman was investigating.

The spy has also come under suspicion. After Nisman’s death he initially cooperated with investigators but then fled the country and is believed to have spent most of the last year in hiding in the US. He returned to Argentina 10 days ago, entering the country via the northern city of Gualeguaychú on the border with Uruguay.

His testimony, and the shift in the jurisdiction and focus of the case, will put the spotlight back on the former president.

In the weeks after Nisman’s death, Fernández first suggested it was suicide, then said it was a deliberate attempt to sabotage her government. She said the prosecutor had been targeted by rogue agents and announced that she would disband Argentina’s domestic and foreign spy service, the Intelligence Secretariat, and replace it with a new body.

Two weeks after the first anniversary of the death and three months after a change of government, politics continues to colour the investigation. President Macri – an opponent of the previous administration – appears to support the theory that Nisman was murdered.

Addressing the first session of congress on Tuesday, Macri said: “Let’s not forget that little more than a year ago prosecutor Alberto Nisman appeared dead in circumstances that remain uncertain but that are slowly starting to clear up.”