Financial compensation is to be given 21 years after the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
Remo Carlotto, who heads the country’s Human Rights Commission, said the compensation would be similar to that awarded to victims of Argentina’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, and the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in the Argentine capital, in which 29 people died and 200 were injured. Officials did not provide specifics but said the compensation would be in the form of a one-time benefit to the heirs of the 85 people killed, as well as to those who were wounded.
On 18 July 1994, 85 people were killed and 300 wounded when a van loaded with explosives detonated in front of the AMIA, the main Jewish center in Argentina. It was the deadliest terrorist incident ever in any South American country.
The case came back into the spotlight earlier this year after prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had been appointed to reopen the investigation, died mysteriously. His family believes he was assassinated.
A few days before his death, Nisman had accused President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of shielding high-ranking Iranian officials from being implicated in the bombing, in exchange for oil and trade benefits from Tehran.
Since 2006, Argentinian courts have demanded the extradition of eight Iranians for the bombing. Tehran has so far refused to cooperate.
