A federal court in Buenos Aires declared unconstitutional last year's memorandum of understanding which the Argentine government concluded with Iran in order to probe the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, with Argentine prosecutors blame on Iran.
The federal court quashed a lower court ruling which said the deal with Tehran was lawful. The government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said it would appeal to the Supreme Court. “The ultimate interpreter of the Constitution will be the Supreme Court,” said Justice Minister Julio Alak.
In early 2013, Argentina’s Congress approved the agreement with Tehran to form an international 'truth commission' to investigate the bombing. The prosecutor investigating the case, Alberto Nisman, had said the agreement constituted an “undue interference of the executive branch in the exclusive sphere of the judiciary.”
Nisman charges that Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement, carried out the attack under orders from Iran.
Since 2006, Argentine courts have demanded the extradition of eight Iranians, including former President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, former Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, and Mohsen Rabbani, Iran’s former cultural attaché in Buenos Aires.
Lauder welcomes ruling, calls for new momentum in AMIA bombing probe
The World Jewish Congress welcomed the federal court ruling. "This July will be the 20th anniversary of the deadly attack on the AMIA/DAIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were murdered and hundreds of others wounded in a terror attack which, according to evidence presented by the Argentine judiciary, was ordered by Iran,” WJC President Ronald Lauder declared.
“It would send a strong signal to the international community and world Jewry if the government of Argentina were to accept this ruling and not appeal it before the Supreme Court. It is time to leave this episode, which has hurt the feelings of many in the Jewish community, behind us and to give new momentum to bringing the perpetrators to justice. The names of those who ordered this crime are known, and some of them were in senior positions in the Iranian government.
“This memorandum of understanding signed with a sponsor of international terrorism was flawed in its very conception, and, not surprisingly, the regime in Tehran has systematically refused to cooperate in the investigation of this despicable attack,” Lauder added.
The World Jewish Congress has consistently supported Argentine Jewry in its efforts to rescind the memorandum, and in April the WJC Executive passed a resolution calling on all its affiliates to press their governments to put pressure on Iran to immediately turn over to the Argentine judiciary the Iranian nationals who are wanted by Interpol in connection with the bombing.
