BUENOS AIRES – The Argentine justice asked Moscow to arrest for extradition purposes the Iranian official Mohsen Rezai, accused of being one of the intellectual authors of the attack on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994, on suspicion that he is in Russia.
The order against Rezai, who has an arrest warrant with a red alert from Interpol, was given the day before by federal judge Marcelo Martínez De Giorgi, who made room for a request from the Fiscal Unit that is dedicated to investigating the attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), which caused 85 deaths.
The Argentine ambassador in Moscow, Eduardo Zuain, said on Friday that the formal request for the arrest of Rezai – Vice President of Economic Affairs of Iran – processed from the embassy has already been sent to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Iranian was commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard when the AMIA was blown up in July 1994.
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Zuain added that there is a constant policy in Argentina to maintain the Interpol red alerts that weigh on Rezai so that they can be fulfilled every time one of the defendants in this case enters another country.
Iran denies its responsibility for the attack, for which the Argentine justice charged eight former Iranian diplomats and officials and a member of the Lebanese and pro-Iranian group Hezbollah. About five of them weigh red alerts from Interpol.
The request for Rezai’s arrest comes a few weeks before the official visit of Argentine President Alberto Fernández to Moscow, scheduled for February 3.
It also takes place after the questionable participation of the Iranian official in the act of inauguration of the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, on January 11 in Managua, during which time the Interpol red alerts were not activated and no action was carried out. procedure to stop it. This determined that the Argentine Foreign Ministry asked all embassies to pay special attention to those who have international arrest warrants.
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When the Argentine authorities became aware of Rezai’s possible trip to Russia, they proceeded to inform the justice system.
Rezai’s presence at Ortega’s inauguration ceremony – questioned in turn by different countries that consider that he does not respect democracy – generated a stir that increased when it was learned that the Argentine ambassador in Managua, Daniel Capitanich, also participated in it. . Argentine opposition deputies and relatives of the victims of the attack strongly criticized what they considered a lack of reaction by the diplomat in the presence of an Iranian official accused of the attack.
Days after the Argentine Foreign Ministry rejected Rezai’s presence in Managua, the South American country and the United States presented a joint declaration that was approved by more than a dozen countries within the framework of the Permanent Committee of the Organization of American States (OAS). in which they condemned the visit of the Iranian official and called for red alerts to be reactivated in all nations so that Interpol can act against those accused of the attack. Said presentation was criticized by representatives of Nicaragua.
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