BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s highest criminal court reported Thursday on a new development in the elusive pursuit of justice in the deadliest attack in the country’s history – the 1994 bombing of the headquarters of a Jewish community center that Iran and Lebanon had planned the attack. The militant group Hezbollah had implemented the plans.
In a ruling obtained by The Associated Press, Argentina’s Court of Cassation blamed Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, for the Buenos Aires bombing that leveled the community center, killing 85 people, wounding 300 and the largest Jewish community Latin America was devastated. The court said the attack was in retaliation for Argentina’s abandonment of a nuclear cooperation agreement with Tehran.
Citing Iran’s “political and strategic” role in the bombing, the Argentine court paved the way for victims’ families to file lawsuits against the Islamic Republic. Over the past three decades, Iran has not extradited citizens convicted in Argentina. Interpol arrest warrants have gone nowhere.
“The significance of these serious human rights violations for the international community as a whole calls forth the duty of a state to ensure judicial protection,” said the ruling, which described the bombing of the community center of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association as a “crime against humanity ” referred to as.
The court decision was no surprise. Argentina’s judiciary has long alleged that Iran was behind the attack, which has cooled relations between the countries – particularly after the failure of a joint investigation. Iran has denied involvement. A spokesman for Hezbollah, Israel’s archenemy on the northern border, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rather, some found it shocking that after 30 years of setbacks and scandals, the court was unable to provide concrete evidence of Iran’s direct involvement or shed new light on the case.
“I would never rule out Iran, it’s definitely on the list of suspects, but let’s do something concrete to rule it out,” said Joe Goldman, co-author of a book about the lengthy investigation into the Jewish community center bombing the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, where more than 20 people were killed in 1992. “That would be a serious investigation that we haven’t seen before.”
The court singled out senior Iranian officials and commanders of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in finding that Iran carried out the bombings in response to Argentina’s abandonment of three contracts in the mid-1980s that would have provided Tehran with nuclear technology. His conclusions were based on confidential intelligence reports.
In light of the court ruling, Israel called on Argentina to declare the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Friday that he had contacted his counterpart in Argentina, Diana Mondino, to convey the request. The two spoke late Thursday, Katz said.
Previous investigations into the bombings have led to indictments not only against Iranian officials but also against two former Argentine presidents. In 2015, the chief prosecutor in the case was mysteriously found dead in his bathroom, a day before he was to go public with allegations that senior Argentine officials had conspired with Iran to cover up responsibility for the bombing. Over the years, witnesses have been threatened and bribed.
On Thursday, the Court of Cassation reduced by two years the six-year prison sentence of an Argentine judge accused of paying a witness $400,000 and upheld other sentences against former prosecutors.
Thursday’s ruling comes just months before the 30th anniversary of the event. Even though the case has been stalled for years, Argentine authorities have timed major announcements to coincide with the anniversaries of the bloody attack. To mark the 25th anniversary of the attack, Argentina designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization and froze the group’s financial assets.
Representatives of Argentina’s Jewish community, home to around 230,000 Jews, praised Thursday’s court ruling as “historic and unique in Argentina.”
“It is politically expedient,” added Jorge Knoblovits, president of Argentina’s Jewish umbrella group, citing renewed scrutiny of Iranian support for militant groups following Hamas’ devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
But for the families of those killed in the bombings, the verdict was just a sombre reminder of their grief as the case remains open.
“We hope that one day there will be complete justice and truth,” said Memoria Activa, an association of families of the victims of the attack. “And that these judges will stop profiting from our dead.”