Senior Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who died under suspect circumstances on Jan. 18, was allegedly forced to borrow a gun from a colleague because he did not trust the police that were charged with protecting him.

Nisman was set to testify about alleged attempts to cover up Iranian involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center and was to appear in Congress to publicly accuse President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of being behind an attempt to cloak the alleged Iranian involvement with the bombing that ended 85 lives.

Prosecutors are still determining whether or not Nisman committed suicide or was murdered.

Now a man named Diego Lagomarsino, a computer specialist and long-time acquaintance, claims to have lent him a gun the day before he was found shot dead, BBC reports. Lagomarsino said to a news conference that Nisman "feared for the safety of his daughters." According to Lagomarsino, he explained that the gun he offered Nisman was not an ideal form of protection,

"I told him, 'Look this (gun) is old, it's an old weapon ... I don't know if you will be able to protect yourself with it,'" Lagomarsino said.

Lagomarsino went on to relay how the special prosecutor answered back.

“[Nisman said,] 'Don't worry, it's to have in the glove box just in case a crazy person with a stick comes up and says I am a traitor. I don't even trust my security detail,'" Lagomarsino said.

Lagomarsino was the the last person to see Nisman alive. He claims he demonstrated to Nisman how to load and unload the gun, but Nisman assured him that would in fact not use it.

Meanwhile, Lagomarsino, the only person to be charged in the Nisman case, has been accused of giving a firearm to a person who was not the legally registered owner of the gun.

Related