Jewish leaders criticize Argentinean leader for interviewing AMIA bombing suspect in Tehran

10 March 2010

The Argentine protest movement leader Luis D'Elia has been strongly criticized after going to Iran to interview one of the chief suspects of the 1994 AMIA bombing. Moshen Rabbani, an Iranian official, has dismissed as "lies" allegations that he masterminded  the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires in which 85 people were killed and hundreds wounded. Rabbani, who served as cultural attaché at Iran’s Embassy in Buenos Aires, said he would not appear before an Argentine court. He was interviewed in Tehran for ‘Radio Cooperativa’ by Argentine social protest leader Luis D'Elia. The meeting has offended many Argentine Jews and the prosecutor investigating the bombing.

Rabbani, who is among six suspects that figure on the most-wanted list of the International Police Organization (Interpol), said he should not be considered a fugitive and claimed Iran “had nothing to do with the bombing.”

Argentine prosecutors have presented evidence that the attack was orchestrated by the Iranian government and entrusted to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.

Argentinean officials said D'Elia did not speak for anyone but himself. However, the protest leader is considered close to the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and victims of the AMIA bombing called on her to denounce his comments. “She is the main judge who should say once and for all for everyone that what D'Elia is doing is offensive,'' Sergio Burstein told ‘Radio 10’.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry asked Fernández to stop D'Elia's pro-Iran activities. “They have to talk to him to stop these meetings between an Argentine politician and a criminal,'' Dorit Shavit, director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry in charge Latin America and the Caribbean, told the ‘Jewish News Agency’.

D'Elia has supported Iran for years. He resigned his post as deputy secretary for housing under former President Néstor Kirchner – Fernández’ husband – after criticizing Argentina's arrest warrant for Rabbani.

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