An Argentine federal choose on June 25 ordered that the ten Iranian and Lebanese suspects accused within the lethal 1994 AMIA bombing be tried in absentia, permitting the case to maneuver ahead after a long time of authorized stagnation.
The criticism, filed by the households of the victims of the bombing, requested Federal Decide Daniel Rafecas to use Argentina’s new “trial in absentia” legislation within the AMIA case, an assault on a Jewish group middle that left 85 individuals lifeless and 300 injured in what stays the deadliest terrorist assault on Argentine soil.
The request was submitted by lawyer Tomás Farini Duggan on behalf of the households of victims Luis Czyzewski and Mario Averbuch.
Rafecas ordered a trial for the present chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Ahmad Vahidi in addition to 9 others accused by the late AMIA prosecutor Alberto Nisman: Alí Fallahijan, Alí Akbar Velayati, Mohsen Rezai, Hadi Soleimanpour, Mohsen Rabbani, Ahmad Reza Asghari, Salman Raouf Salman, Abdallah Salman and Hussein Mounir Mouzannar.
Making an attempt the suspects in absentia, Rafecas argued, would permit the courts to “no less than attempt to uncover the reality and reconstruct what occurred,” in keeping with Buenos Aires Instances, including that “it’s important to proceed … to forestall the perpetuation of impunity.”
Till now, Argentina’s justice system didn’t permit trials within the absence of the accused in critical prison instances similar to this one. Final April, Argentinian prosecutors requested an arrest warrant for Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement within the 1994 bombing, and in April 2024, an Argentine courtroom dominated that Iran and Hezbollah had been behind the assault.
Argentina’s Congress accepted the “trial in absentia” legislation 4 months in the past as a authorized mechanism to prosecute people accused of terrorism and crimes in opposition to humanity, together with these related to the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy and the 1994 AMIA assault.
At present, the authorized proceedings within the AMIA case have been frozen as a result of requirement that defendants be bodily current in courtroom. The brand new legislation removes that impediment, probably paving the best way for a full trial of the Iranian suspects, who stay at giant and have by no means appeared earlier than an Argentine courtroom.
Throughout the debate within the decrease and higher homes of Congress, lawmakers referred to Hezbollah, Hamas, the Argentine hostages taken in Gaza and a controversial memorandum of understanding with Iran, reached in 2013, underscoring the lengthy and complicated historical past of each the AMIA and Israeli Embassy bombing instances.
The Argentinian Jewish umbrella group DAIA publicly praised the brand new legislation, writing in a press launch in February that, with its passage, “progress could be made within the prosecution of the alleged masterminds of the assault on the AMIA-DAIA headquarters, justice can be carried out, and impunity will finish.”
Jewish group leaders and Sandra Arroyo Salgado, the previous spouse of Nisman, who died in 2015, had been current through the decrease home debate 4 months in the past.
In response to the Ministry of Justice, which launched the invoice, related trial-in-absentia legal guidelines exist already in international locations like Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, and Spain.
For more information, go to JTA.org.