The Argentine Justice has ruled this Thursday as a “crime against humanity” the attack against the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) on April 18, 1994, in Buenos Aires. The Argentine Court of Criminal Cassation, and a court of second instance, have found it proven that Iran had planned the attack and the Lebanese militant group Hizbullah carried it out. The attack caused 85 deaths and 300 injuries, devastating the largest Jewish community in Latin America.
One of the judges in the court has asked for legal reforms so that the accused can be tried in absentia, since, almost 30 years later, the largest attack perpetrated on Argentine soil remains unpunished.
According to the ruling by judges Carlos Mahiques, Diego Barroetaveña and Ángela Ledesma, the attack responded to a “political and strategic” purpose of Tehran, after Argentina breached a nuclear cooperation agreement. The ruling opens the door for the families of the victims to file lawsuits against the Islamic Republic, which has refused for almost three decades to collaborate with the Argentine Justice system to bring the accused to trial. Furthermore, the constant arrest warrants from Interpol have also led nowhere.
The President of the delegation of Argentine Israeli associations, Jorge Knoblovitz, declared on LN television that the ruling “is historic, unique in Argentina, it was not only due to Argentina: it was due to the victims.” He has also referred to Iran as a “terrorist state” and has opened the possibility of filing a complaint before the International Criminal Court.
The judicial investigation has not been without controversy. The first years were so chaotic that a case was even opened against the first investigating judge, Juan José Galeano, for paying a witness to point out police officers as local links to the terrorists who blew up the Jewish mutual in Buenos Aires.
In 2015, the lead prosecutor in the case was mysteriously found dead in his bathroom the day before going public with his claims that senior Argentine officials had conspired with Iran to cover up responsibility for the attack. In addition, the then president of the nation, Carlos Menem, was investigated for the alleged diversion of the investigation, but he was acquitted in 2019.
Finally, coinciding with the day of the ruling, the Court of Cassation has reduced by two years the six-year sentence imposed on an Argentine judge, accused of paying $400,000 to a witness, and has confirmed other sentences against former prosecutors.
"We hope that one day complete justice and the truth will come," said the association of relatives of victims of the attack, Memoria Activa en X. "And that these judges stop profiting from our dead."
