Argentine prosecutor Sebastián Basso requested an arrest warrant for Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for his alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of the Argentinian Israeli Mutual Association (AIMA) building, the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, the Argentine newspaper Clarín reported Wednesday. Basso asked Interpol to pursue Khamenei's arrest and instructed Argentine police to detain him if he visits the country. The prosecutor claims Khamenei "led the decision to carry out the attack in Buenos Aires in July 1994 and issued the 'fatwa' calling for its execution."
Basso argues that Khamenei is "the main supporter of groups like Hezbollah" and personally appointed "Hezbollah's secretary-general as his representative in Lebanon." The prosecutor bases his case on the Iranian constitution, which establishes Khamenei as responsible for setting state policy and serving as the supreme commander of Iran's armed forces with control over intelligence operations – which an Argentine court previously determined were involved in executing the attacks.
Regarding Khamenei's immunity as a head of state, Basso claims that "Khamenei does not have immunity from responsibility for a crime with terrorist characteristics and against humanity."
It should be noted that the previous prosecutor on the case, Alberto Nisman, was murdered in 2015 before he was due to testify to Congress about the cover-up of Iran's involvement in the attack. The New York Times reported that Nisman had prepared arrest warrants against then-Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, accusing her of reaching an agreement with Iranian authorities to cover up Iranian involvement in the attacks.
The bombing of the AMIA Jewish community building in Argentina was a suicide attack that occurred in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, on July 18, 1994, when a Lebanese terrorist detonated an explosive planted in a car bomb, killing 85 people and wounding 330. Two years earlier, an attack against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires killed 29 people and injured 220. Hezbollah attributed the attacks to revenge for the assassination of the organization's then-secretary-general, Abbas Musawi.
