(JTA) – A journalist from Argentina’s state-run public television used a Jewish conspiracy theory to explain the death of NBA basketball great Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven other passengers in a helicopter accident on Sunday, Jan. 26. “Sikorsky S76 helicopter, of Jewish surname, kills Kobe Bryant,” Eduardo Salim Sad tweeted Monday, Jan. 27. His account has been removed from Twitter, though it is not clear if it was by Sad or Twitter. The tweet, which was viewed thousands of times, triggered criticism and condemnation from the Jewish community.

Sad later asserted that someone hacked his account and tweeted the statement “to harm me. I’m furious and dismayed.” A Twitter account that recovers erased tweets republished the Kobe Bryant tweet alongside other tweets in which Sad blames the “Zionists,” and where he calls Argentine writer Marcos Aguinis “A Jew, bearer of fascism.”