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Argentina: Macri Abolishes Iranian Immunity against AMIA Bombing Charges | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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People hold up pictures of those who died in the AMIA Jewish center bombing that killed 85 people as they commemorate the attack’s 22nd anniversary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)


Buenos Aires- On the 22nd anniversary marking the terrorist bombing of the AMIA (Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina), staged by Iran, which left 85 dead and 300 injured, the Iranian regime received an unexpected and major put-down.

The AMIA involved a car bomb attack against a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

Argentinian President Mauricio Macri made the decision on cancelling the memorandum of understanding established with the Iranian regime when former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was in office.

The memorandum ensured that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC members involved with the AMIA bombing are not pursued.

Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad worked relentlessly to get the memorandum signed in 2013, and it eventually was. At the time, Tehran considered the signing of the memorandum a great diplomatic and moral success, which will mitigate pressure imposed on IRGC members involved with the horrendous attacks that struck Buenos Aries during 1992 and 1994.

One of the notorious figures that have been greatly relieved by the memorandum is former Iranian diplomat and Mohsen Rabbani, who Interpol had issued a Red Notice by.

Macri had promised in his 2015 presidential elections campaign that when rising to power he would save no efforts when it comes to the dissolution of the memorandum.

Prosecutors have accused Iranian officials of being behind the bombing, but no one has been convicted in the attack.

“It’s been 22 years of not knowing what went on as a result of badly introduced evidence, other evidence that hasn’t even been considered, and documents that the executive power hid from judges,” Mario Cimadevilla, head of a special investigative unit focused on the attack, told local radio.

During the ceremony, some also called for answers in the mysterious death of the leading prosecutor investigating the case. Alberto Nisman’s body was discovered in his apartment January 18, 2015, with a gunshot wound to the head.

Nisman was scheduled to go before Congress the next day to present allegations that then-president Cristina Fernandez orchestrated a secret deal to cover up Iranian officials’ alleged role in the attack. Fernandez denied it and judges later threw out the case.

A year and a half after Nisman’s death, authorities have yet to determine whether he took his own life or was killed by someone else. Many say that he was slain because he was a threat to the Argentine and Iranian governments.