Iran envoy in Argentina criticizes bombing case
Source: Reuters
By Kevin GrayBUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Iran's top diplomat in Argentina appeared before an Argentine judge on Tuesday and criticized an investigation alleging Tehran masterminded the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center. Charge d'affaires Mohsen Baharvand requested the special hearing to refute allegations by Argentine prosecutors seeking the arrest of Iranian officials in connection with the attack. His comments have no legal bearing on the case but his appearance marked the first time an Iranian official responded to the charges before judicial authorities in Argentina. "I want to say Iran had absolutely nothing to do" with the bombing, Baharvand said in Farsi through a Spanish translator. "The road you have chosen is wrong." Tensions between the two countries have risen in recent weeks after a judge issued arrest warrants for former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and eight officials in a probe of the July 18, 1994, blast that killed 85 people and injured more than 200. In the attack, an explosives-laden truck detonated outside the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) building, leveling a symbol of Latin America's largest Jewish community. No one has been convicted of carrying out the blast, and judicial misconduct and charges of a government cover-up have plagued a lengthy investigation. Rafsanjani was Iran's president at the time of the bombing, and the other officials being sought include several of his former top aides. Argentine officials say Rafsanjani and other Iranian officials ordered the bombing and entrusted Hezbollah to execute it out of anger over Argentina's decision in the 1990s to stop providing Iran with nuclear technology. Baharvand said Argentina was not Iran's only provider of nuclear technology before the bombing. SERIES OF COMPLAINTS Appearing in a Buenos Aires courtroom, Baharvand rattled off a series of complaints about the investigation on Tuesday, challenging key parts of it as several family members of victims of the bombing watched from a gallery. He said Argentine authorities had failed to produce any new evidence to back up their requests for the arrest warrants, citing previous failed bids to extradite Iranian officials. In 2003, Britain rejected an extradition request of Iran's ambassador to Argentina at the time of the attack, saying the evidence was not strong enough. "The investigation seems to be always based on the same information," Baharvand said. In an interview with Reuters this month, prosecutor Alberto Nisman said evidence gathered by Argentine authorities and used as a basis for the warrants had partially drawn on testimony from Iranian dissidents and former government officials. But Baharvand said at least two of the witnesses were "terrorists" with links to an armed Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahideen Organization, and said others were neither in Argentina nor Iran when the bombing occurred. "We think you still have to find the real killers," he said. Argentine officials did not immediately comment on his statements.
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