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2007-11-04 International-UN-NGOs
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Interpol may red flag Iranians for 1994 Argentine Jewish center bombing
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Iran's top diplomat in Argentina says the U.S. and Israel are pressuring Interpol to put a handful of his countrymen on the international police agency's most-wanted list for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center here. The lead prosecutor in Argentina's worst terror attack, however, says the case is not a political matter. He is calling for Interpol to take action at the 186-nation agency's general assembly that opens Monday in Marrakech, Morocco.
"Iran has been permanently trying to politicize this," prosecutor Alberto Nisman said before flying to Marrakech. "We are going to Morocco with our truth and we are going to explain why these persons are being sought, as simple as that," Nisman said.
There have been no convictions 13 years after an explosives-laden van leveled the seven-story Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people. Argentine prosecutors allege Iranian officials orchestrated the bombing and entrusted the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah to carry it out. They say they have sufficient evidence for Interpol member nations to approve "red notices" for six suspects five Iranians and one Lebanese.
A red notice means a suspect is wanted for possible extradition. While it does not force countries to arrest or extradite suspects, people with red-notice status appear on Interpol's equivalent of a most-wanted list.
In Marrakech, Interpol is expected to outline to delegates arguments from both Argentina and Iran. If a simple majority decides in Argentina's favor, the notices will be issued. Iran has asked that the issue be delayed until next year, a request expected to be voted on first.
Victims' relatives have complained for years that the investigation was bungled. Amid allegations he paid a key witness, the investigating judge on the case was removed and later impeached. Now Argentine officials and Jewish community leaders hope Interpol can give a boost to the country's beleaguered justice system.
The case poses one of the toughest challenges for the international police liaison group based in Lyon, France, which mostly deals with routine police requests. "The case has created a lot of tension between Argentina and Iran," said Francois Nicoullaud, France's ambassador to Tehran from 2001 to 2005.
Mohsen Baharvand, Iran's top diplomat in Argentina, blames Washington and its allies mainly Israel for the tension. "They try to bother Iran for many reasons," Baharvand told The Associated Press. "They try to politicize the technical organizations in every corner of the world against Iran."
Iran's constitution doesn't allow citizens to be sent abroad in such cases, the diplomat said. Instead, Iranian officials have proposed that Argentina agree to legal and judicial cooperation that would let Tehran share information on the case. "There is no reason for us to fear providing information because we are sure Iranians have not engaged in this" attack, he said. Argentina has turned down the proposal.
Interpol's executive committee decided in March to issue red notices a decision put on hold by Iranian appeal for former Iranian intelligence chief Ali Fallahian; Mohsen Rabbani, former cultural attache at the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires; former diplomat Ahmad Reza Asghari; Mohsen Rezaei, former leader of the elite Revolutionary Guards; Ahmad Vahidi, a general in the Revolutionary Guards; and Lebanese Hezbollah militant Imad Moughnieh, one of the world's most sought-after terror suspects. Moughnieh is wanted for his alleged role in the kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s, and suicide attacks on the U.S. Embassy and a U.S. Marine base in Lebanon that killed more than 260 Americans. His whereabouts are unknown.
Interpol denied Argentina's request for red notices for former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, as well as the country's former foreign minister and ambassador to Buenos Aires. 
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Posted by ryuge 2007-11-04 08:50||
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Posted by Pappy 2007-11-04 20:38||
2007-11-04 20:38||
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