Argentina to try 10 Iranians, Lebanese in absentia over 1994 bombing of Jewish center
US, Argentina and Israel have long said Iran and Hezbollah were responsible for AMIA attack, which killed 85, and Iran's Khamenei faces an arrest warrant for it
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) — Argentina will try in absentia 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, according to a Thursday ruling.
In the ruling, seen by AFP, Judge Daniel Rafecas acknowledged the “exceptional” nature of the decision to send the case to court over three decades after the bombing and with the suspects all still at large.
The attack, which injured more than 300 and caused devastation in Latin America’s biggest Jewish community, was the deadliest outside Israel since the Holocaust. It has never been claimed or solved, and no one has ever been arrested over it.
But Argentina, the United States and Israel have long suspected the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah of carrying it out at the request of its patron, Iran. An Argentine court ruled last year that Iran and Hezbollah were responsible for the attack, and in April, Argentine prosecutors requested an arrest warrant for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, over his alleged involvement in the bombing.
Trying the suspects in absentia, Rafecas said, allowed the court to “at least try to uncover the truth and reconstruct what happened.” Rafecas said a trial in absentia was justified given the “material impossibility of securing the presence of the defendants and the nature of the crime against humanity under investigation.”
The suspects facing trial are former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats for whom Argentina has issued international arrest warrants. Since 2006, Argentina had sought the arrest of eight Iranians, including then-president Ali Akbar Hashemi Bahramaie Rafsanjani, who died in 2017.
Iran has always denied any involvement and refused to arrest and hand over suspects. Thursday’s ruling on trying them in absentia is the first of its kind in the South American country. Until March this year, the country’s laws did not allow for suspects to be tried unless they were physically present.
It comes amid a new push in recent years for justice to be served over the attack, backed by President Javier Milei, a staunch ally of Israel.
The 2024 Argentine court ruling found that the AMIA attack and another on the Israeli embassy in 1992 that killed 29 people were likely triggered by the Argentine government under then-president Carlos Menem canceling three contracts with Iran for the supply of nuclear equipment and technology.
The court did not, however, produce evidence of Iran’s involvement.
In addition, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica, last year found the Argentine state responsible for failing to prevent and properly investigate the attack.
It also blamed the state for efforts to “cover up and obstruct the investigation.”
Former president Cristina Kirchner has been ordered to stand trial over a memorandum she signed with Iran in 2013 to investigate the bombing.
The memorandum, which was later annulled, allowed for suspects to be interrogated in Iran rather than Argentina, leading Kirchner to be accused of conspiring with Tehran in a cover-up.
She has denied the allegations. In 2015, the lead prosecutor on the case, Alberto Nisman, was assassinated hours before he was set to present evidence of a cover-up.
Times of Israel staff and JTA contributed to this report.