Argentina sends eight suspects to trial over AMIA bombing

Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas has placed on trial eight Iranian and Lebanese citizens accused of participating in the organisation and execution of the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish community centre, slapping liens of US$500 million on each of the accused.

The resolution, which runs to more than 600 pages, was drafted under the régime for trials in absentia, as established by National Law 27,784, which permits legal proceedings to go ahead despite the accused remaining on the run abroad while guaranteeing their right to legal representation and the other safeguards of due process. 

The mechanism was approved in 2025, under President Javier Milei’s government.

According to the reconstruction included in the ruling, the decision to carry out the attack was adopted in August 1993 at the highest levels of the Iranian régime and entrusted to Hezbollah, which organised its implementation via a network of regional and local support based on the Triple Frontier.

Rafecas has placed on trial as indirect authors then-Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahijan, former foreign minister Ali Velayati, Mohsen Rezai, then-commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and Ahmad Vahidi, who served as commander of the Al Quds force.

Also going on trial as necessary accomplices are former Iranian Ambassador to Argentina Hadi Soleimanpour, his ex-cultural attaché Mohsen Rabbani and Revolutionary Guard intelligence agent Ahmad Asghari.

Salman Raouf Salman, aka ‘Samuel El Reda,’ a Lebanese agent of Hezbollah who coordinated the final stages of the attack, according to Rafecas, was also sent to trial.

The resolution comes after more than three decades of investigations into the bombing and brings the case closer to a possible oral trial. 

Defence lawyers appointed for the accused can still appeal the ruling, however, and further procedural steps must be completed before the case can be sent to trial. 

Rafecas told the AFP news agency that there was still “a whole process” to be completed.

Details of the resolution

According to the resolution, the accused purchased a Renault Trafic van on July 10, 1994, refitted it and loaded it with 300 kilos of ammonal and TNT. 

The vehicle was used on July 18 to perpetrate the attack against the AMIA building, which provoked 85 deaths, left 300 injured and caused serious material damage.

The attack was formally considered as reiterated homicide and grievous bodily harm, aggravated by racial or religious hatred and by the use of means capable of causing a common danger, apart from damage aggravated by discriminatory motives.

Rafecas further termed the attack as a crime against humanity, also classifying it as genocide in terms of international law.

The judge cleared Abdallah Salman and Hussein Mouzannar on the grounds of lack of evidence. Nor will supreme Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh nor Ali Hussein Abdallah be sent to trial, according to the resolution, owing to their deaths earlier this year, in 2008 and in 2020, respectively.

Rafecas also pointed to a possible connection between the AMIA bombing and the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 22 people.

President Milei welcomed the ruling on social media, writing: “Morality as state policy!” He also shared  a post by Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona announcing the decision.

The resolution may be appealed by the court-appointed defence lawyers and, if confirmed by higher instances, the courtroom will have to advance with all parties towards public judicial proceedings under the régime of trial in absentia.