The top prosecutor leading the investigation into the deadliest bombing in Argentina’s history requested an arrest warrant for Iranian “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this week, identifying him as a key mastermind of the attack.
Prosecutor Sebastián Basso also requested that Argentina formally ask Interpol for a red notice, or request for arrest, for Khamenei and began proceedings for a trial in absentia for the Iranian officials identified as responsible for plotting and executing the bombing. Such a trial would be unprecedented in Argentine history, as the nation only modified its penal code to allow for such trials last year.
The 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) headquarters was the deadliest terrorist attack documented in the Western Hemisphere before 2001, killing 85 people and leaving dozens injured. Argentine investigators for years have followed the evidence to senior leaders of the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah and top officials within the Iranian government.
In 2007, Interpol announced it had approved requests for red notices for 6 individuals with links to the Iranian government, but initially failed to move against the president at the time, Ali Rafsanjani, former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, or ambassador to Argentina, Hadi Soleimanpour.
Velayati and Soleimanpour are among those Basso requested a trial in absentia for; Rafsanjani died in 2017.
The terror attack has been a source of decades of political controversy in Argentina, particularly following the decision of leftist former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to sign a memorandum of understanding with Iran that essentially buried the investigation. Fernández, who served as vice president in the administration preceding that of current President Javier Milei, is being prosecuted for that decision currently, in addition to enduring several legal proceedings on corruption charges.
Basso replaced prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who died in January 2015 under mysterious circumstances. The government of Fernández de Kirchner wrote that he had committed suicide a day before he was to appear before Congress with evidence that her government had conspired to protect the Iranian perpetrators of the crime. A draft arrest warrant for Fernández was found in Nisman’s trash bin.
According to the Argentine newspaper La Nación, Basso wrote in his request for arrest warrants on Wednesday that the AMIA bombing, and a similar but less deadly attack on the Israeli embassy in 1992, could not have been possible without Iranian regime support from the highest levels of power. Prior investigations by Argentina identified several members of the jihadist terror organization Hezbollah as directly responsible for the on-the-ground logistics of the bombing.
“The sponsorship of Hezbollah’s armed struggle outside of Lebanon on the part of the political organization that controls the destiny of Iran was, and continues to be, the main support of the given criminal association,” Basso wrote.
Khamanei should be arrested personally, he explained, because “everything in Iran related to foreign policy and use of force passes through him.” He identified a meeting in 1994 in Tehran in which he alleged that Khamenei presided over plans to conduct the bombing.
“Since always, and to this date, Khamenei is the main supporter of groups that possess military capacity such as Hezbollah,” his request emphasized.
The prosecutor rejected the possibility that, as supreme leader, Khamenei enjoyed legal immunity, writing that “a sensible analysis of the matter … does not support immunity of this nature before his responsibility for a terrorist crime against humanity.”
The long list of individuals Basso requested a trial in absentia for, regarding the Amia bombing, included, in addition to the aforementioned, Iranian cleric Alí Fallahijan, Expediency Council member Mohsen Rezai, former defense minister Ahmad Vahidi, Latin America terror liaison Mohsen Rabbani, Argentina-based diplomat Ahmad Reza Asghari, and accused Hezbollah members Salman Raouf Salman, Hussein Mounir Mouzannar, and Abdallah Salman. Not all of those named appear to still be alive at press time.
La Nación reported that the judge responsible for the case has already decided to move forward with an in-absentia trial, an unprecedented event in the nation’s history. The law that allows for such trials was formalized in February and limited only to egregious crimes and those committed on Argentine soil.
While Argentina has not yet processed the individuals in question in a trial, the country’s Federal Criminal Cassation Court ruled a year ago that Iran and Hezbollah were jointly responsible for both the 1992 and larger 1994 attacks. This ruling, while a significant step forward in the justice process, did not result in the prosecution of any individuals.
The Iranian government, which at press time has remained silent on the situation publicly, condemned the 2024 ruling as “baseless and unsubstantiated” and has repeatedly claimed no guilt in the terrorist attacks.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the latest ruling on the motives behind the blast as well as its perpetrators was an amateur move far from legal and judicial rigor,” an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman denounced at the time.
