16 August 2007
An Iranian court has summoned five former Argentinean government officials to come to Iran and answer charges of working against the security of the country, Iran’s state television reported on Thursday. The five officials were all involved in an investigation that implicated Iran in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded 200. The report said the Argentinians had been informed of the summons via diplomatic channels and if they did not travel to Iran and appear in court in the coming days, an international arrest warrant would be issued against them.
The court summoned former federal judge Juan Jose Galeano, interior minister Carlos Corach, the chief prosecutors Eamon Mullen and Jose Barbaccia, and Ruben Beraja, a banker and former head of the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations. More Argentineans could be summoned in the future, the television report said. The announcement appears to be an Iranian retaliation following Argentinean federal judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral's declaration last December that the former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and eight other officials were "fugitives from justice" for not responding to arrest warrants issued earlier.
At the time, the Corral said he had serious evidence linking the officials, which included including former intelligence chief Ali Fallahijan and former Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, to the bombing. Iran has denied any involvement in the attack and has said it does not recognize the validity of the arrest warrants and would oppose any attempt to detain the former president or other Iranian citizens.
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