Attack left 85 dead; Argentine government says those responsible “continue in their positions of power with total impunity”
Argentina requested the arrest of Iran’s Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Tuesday (April 23, 2024). According to the organization, the request is because of the attack on the headquarters of Amia (Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association) in Buenos Aires, in 1994. The action left 85 people dead and was considered the worst attack in Argentine history.
The Argentine Federal Chamber of Cassation said, on April 11, that it understood that Iran was involved in the attack on Amia and in one carried out two years earlier, in 1992, against the Israeli Embassy in the capital.
“Argentina demands the international arrest of those responsible for the attack on Amia in 1994, which caused the deaths of 85 people”, reads a statement (in full, in Spanish – PDF – 145 kB) from the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “They continue in their positions of power with complete impunity”, continues the text.
“One of them is Ahmad Vahidi, wanted by Argentine justice as one of those responsible for the attack on Amia. This individual is currently the Minister of Interior of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is part of a government delegation currently in Pakistan and Sri Lanka”, he adds.
“On the occasion of his trip, Argentina requested the governments of Pakistan and Sri Lanka to arrest him”, he adds.
ATTACKS OF 1992 AND 1994
According to the sentence handed down on April 11, the 2 attacks “originated mainly from the unilateral decision of the government [iraniano]motivated by a change in our country’s foreign policy [Argentina] from the end of 1991 to mid-1992, to cancel 3 contracts for the supply of nuclear equipment and technology concluded with Iran”. Here is the full text, in Spanish (PDF – 5 MB).
In the decision, Hezbollah (a Shiite group in Lebanon) was identified as the perpetrator of the attack. Iran is classified as “terrorist state” and the attack on Amia as a “crime against humanity”.
The court established that Iran is subject to lawsuits filed by the victims’ relatives and, in these situations, it will have to “fully repair the damage caused (moral and material), through, among other measures, monetary compensation”. Iran denies participation in the attacks.
In a statement released after the sentence, the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, declared that the decision “puts an end to decades of delay and cover-up, determining that the attacks against the Israeli Embassy and Amia were carried out by Hezbollah, under the auspices of state organizations of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”.
The Argentine leader said: “The Federal Court of Criminal Cassation has been able to carry out its function with complete freedom, without political pressure, to deliver the justice that both victims and their families have been waiting for for decades.”.
Read the full statement issued by Milei’s office, in Spanish:
