BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (WJC) –A federal court here declared unconstitutional last year’s memorandum of understanding which the Argentine government concluded with Iran in order to probe the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which Argentine prosecutors blame on Iran.
The federal court quashed a lower court ruling which said the deal with Tehran was lawful. The government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said it would appeal to the Supreme Court. “The ultimate interpreter of the Constitution will be the Supreme Court,” said Justice Minister Julio Alak.
In early 2013, Argentina’s Congress approved the agreement with Tehran to form an international ‘truth commission’ to investigate the bombing. The prosecutor investigating the case, Alberto Nisman, had said the agreement constituted an “undue interference of the executive branch in the exclusive sphere of the judiciary.”
Nisman charges that Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement, carried out the attack under orders from Iran.
Since 2006, Argentine courts have demanded the extradition of eight Iranians, including former President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, former Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, and Mohsen Rabbani, Iran’s former cultural attaché in Buenos Aires.
The deal between the two countries is strongly rejected by Jewish organizations both in Argentina — which has the continent’s largest Jewish community – and on the international level, including the World Jewish Congress.
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The American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomed the Argentine federal court ruling. “For two decades, the Jewish community has suffered an enormously frustrating pattern of delays in seeking justice,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “Bravo to the court for rejecting this myth of criminals and victims cooperating on resolving one of the most heinous acts of terror in our time.”
The Argentine-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed in January 2013, aimed to establish a “truth commission” to bring to justice those responsible for the massive terrorist attack, which destroyed the AMIA Jewish community building in Buenos Aires, left 85 dead and 300 injured.
But the Federal Criminal Appeals Court justices ruled yesterday that the MOU conflicts with and undermines an Argentine investigation approved years ago by the government’s executive and legislative branches. That probe, spearheaded by prosecutor Alberto Nisman, concluded in 2007 that Iran bears direct responsibility for the attack, and Interpol has since been seeking the apprehension of five Iranian officials.
When the MOU provision for a “truth commission” was first announced last year, AJC’s Harris compared it to “asking Nazi Germany to help establish the facts of Kristallnacht.”
Two survivors of the bombing — Daniel Pomerantz, AMIA Executive Director, and Anita Weinstein, of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Argentina, addressed the AJC Global Forum in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday in an emotional tribute for the 20th anniversary of the attack. As they recounted the attack on July 18, 1994, photos of each of the 85 killed were displayed on the large digital screen behind them. Watch the Global Forum session at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTjcj478QUI
AJC has stood at the side of the Argentine Jewish community from the first moments of the tragedy in 1994, when an AJC group traveled to Buenos Aires to comfort the victims and their families and call for justice. AJC delegations have returned at least annually since. AMIA is a longstanding AJC international partner.
The MOU was ratified by the Argentine legislature a year ago, but it has not yet been implemented because the Iranian legislature did not approve it.
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Preceding provided by the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee