Trial Begins for Bombing at Buenos Aires Jewish Center

The trial for the bombing at the Buenos Aires Jewish center, which occurred 23 years ago, began on Tuesday, October 17. In this case, 15 former Argentine officials, including the then Foreign Minister, are accused of collaborating with Iran to conceal the Islamic Republic's role in the bombing. The first session of the trial, known as the AMIA case, commenced with the presence of Hector Timerman, the former Foreign Minister of Argentina. Mr. Timerman, while refusing to answer questions from Judge Claudio Bonadio, briefly denied the allegations of collaborating with other defendants to hide Iran's role in the bombing. He also rejected the accusations in this case regarding signing an agreement with Iran to conceal the role of Iranian officials in the AMIA bombing in exchange for receiving oil from Iran. Investigators in the case state that prior to signing the 2013 agreement, the Argentine government had conducted secret negotiations with Iranian officials, and in 2012, Hector Timerman secretly met with Ali Akbar Salehi, the then Iranian Foreign Minister, in Syria. The two foreign ministers also met and discussed on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that year, which led to a joint statement. In this statement, both sides agreed to continue discussions until a complete solution was reached. According to the Telam news agency of Argentina, Mr. Timerman, who did not attend the court session to answer the judge's questions, submitted a 160-page statement to the court. The Buenos Aires court is set to review the case of the 15 defendants in the AMIA case. The court has also summoned Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was the President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015, for questioning. The AMIA case, which was opened 23 years ago, has faced changes in governments, prosecutors, and judges, as well as the murder of a prominent prosecutor. In 2015, the body of Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor of the AMIA case, was found in his apartment. At that time, the criminal court assessed his death as homicide. Nisman’s body was discovered a day before he was scheduled to testify in the Argentine Congress against the then President and present evidence to Congress. He had concluded in his investigations that Cristina Fernández, the then President of Argentina, intended to cover up Iran's possible role in the attack on the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires. After Nisman’s death, the case was handed over to another prosecutor, and it is said that the Buenos Aires court will conclude its review of this case by the end of this month. It is still unclear when the final verdict for the defendants in the AMIA case will be issued. The bombing at the Jewish cultural center in 1994 resulted in 86 deaths and 300 injuries. At that time, the Lebanese Hezbollah group was accused of carrying out the bombing, and Iran was accused of directing it. Argentine courts have sought the extradition of eight Iranians since 2006, including five former Iranian officials: Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the then President, Ahmad Vahidi, the former Minister of Defense, Mohsen Rezaei, the former commander of the IRGC, Ali Fallahian, the then Minister of Intelligence, and Mohsen Rabbani, the then cultural attaché of Iran in Argentina. Iran has consistently denied involvement in the bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish center and reports regarding collusion with the then Argentine government to conceal this matter in exchange for oil exports to that country.