AMIA: 400 kilos of explosives, 9 accused abroad and two former presidents on the bench

About 400 kilos of explosives based on ammonium nitrate and nitroglycerin TNT in a truck Renault Trafic, they were needed, 25 years ago, fly the AMIA headquarters, kill 85 people and wound more than 150. This is what the Argentine justice system, which is UFI AMIA's, is responsible for investigating the biggest terrorist attack in local history.

They also believe that there is evidence to prove that the attack was decided in August 1993, almost a year before being perpetrated at a meeting in Masha, Iran. However, with nine foreign defendants, Interpol red shows and international arrest warrants, the crime remains unpunished.

Its resolution still seems far today, but there is something for sure: this is the most complex and scandalous case of national justicein which neither the political power nor the judiciary has lived up to the facts.

There have already been two cases related to the case, a third is under development and the fourth has not yet started. Two of these debates concern the concealment of the attack and involve former presidents: Carlos Menem and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Menem had already been tried "for the deviation of the Syrian track" and acquitted, which is not yet firm. While CFK could sit on the bench of the defendant in the coming months. She will be judged on her role in the agreement with Iran.

With regard to the organization of the attack, the investigators of the case consider that it goes without saying that the highest authority of the regime that then ruled the Republic of Iran attended the meeting at which it was conceived. From there, the order of preparation and execution of the armed wing of Hezbollah would also have been published.

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It is considered that three groups have intervened: an operational, a logistics and a third in charge of "cleaning". The group "Ansar Allah", linked to Hezbollah, is the one who, a few days after the attack, claimed responsibility for the attack. Imad Moughnieh, then head of Hezbollah's foreign service, is designated as the person responsible for the execution.

The operational group that materially led the attack could have counted on the support of officials linked to the Iranian Embbady in Buenos Aires. Mohsen Rabbani, head of cultural affairs at the embbady, ​​was indicted for deploying an intelligence device and participated in the attack. While the terrorist group responsible for the last party entered on 1 July and withdrew the same day from the attack.

There are currently nine people charged by the case. Eight are of Iranian origin and a Lebanese. The latter was identified in 2016 under the direction of UFI AMIA by Sabrina Namer and Roberto Salum, under the name of Salman Salman. Until then and since 2009, he had looked for him under the pseudonym Salman El Reda, as it appears in the apocryphal papers with which he entered the country by Foz de Iguazu. After establishing the true identity of Salman Salman, the judge of the case, Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, dictated last year the international arrest warrant.

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Salman Salman is accused of being the coordinator of the Hezbollah group, which was in Buenos Aires. About seven of the nine involved – Ali Akbar Velayati, Foreign Minister, and Hadi Soleimanpour, Iran 's ambbadador to Argentina, enjoy diplomatic immunity – weigh the "Red – Index Emissions" of Interpol. There were two other defendants already dead, including Ali Akbar Hashemi Bahramaie Rafsanjani, President of the Republic of Iran.

All are abroad, so they could not be reached by Argentine justice. Over the past few days, we have tried to advance the trial in absentia, a proposal that is unsustainable and has not been accepted by the vast majority of the victims' families, who have been fighting for justice for 25 years. years.

Judgments

During this quarter century, there have been two lawsuits related to the case, another is ongoing and the fourth could begin before the end of the year.

1 2001-2004. With axis in Carlos Alberto Telleldín, last fork of the Traffic, ended with the acquittal of all the accused. He revealed serious irregularities and criminal behavior at the investigation stage. He paved the way for the investigation for the first hiding of the case. Known as the "detour of the Syrian track", the investigation lasted the first ten years of UFI AMIA, created in 2004, at the end of the debate.

2 2015-2019. Trial for concealment "deviation of the so-called Syrian track". He appeared in front of the headquarters of former President Carlos Menem, the head of his intelligence service Hugo Anzorregui, the first judge of the case, Juan Jose Galeano, former prosecutors Eamon Müllen and Juan José Barbaccia and several federal police officers.

3 2019 – New trial of Telleldín, charged with the preparation and delivery of the Trafic truck allegedly used for the attack.

4 Next trial for the alleged camouflage under the agreement with Iran. Among the defendants are CFK, Andrés Larroque, Luis D 'Elia, Oscar Parrilli, among others. Much of the trial was based on the complaint of the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman, UFI AMIA's first chief.

C.D./D.S.