Argentine judge calls for detention of four Lebanese citizens in AMIA bombing probe
FILE - A plaque with the word in Spanish “Remember” and the names of the victims of the 1994 terrorist attack on the the Jewish community center AMIA is placed inside the AMIA compound in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb. 8, 2013. A federal judge in Argentina called on Interpol on June 13, 2023 to detain four Lebanese citizens, so they can be questioned for their suspected role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center that killed 85 people. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano, File)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A federal judge in Argentina has called on Interpol to detain four Lebanese citizens, so they can be questioned for their suspected role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center that killed 85 people.
“Regarding these individuals, there are well-founded suspicions that they are collaborators or operational agents of the … armed wing of Hezbollah,” judge Daniel Rafecas wrote in a resolution dated June 13 that the Associated Press obtained Thursday.
Argentine prosecutors have long alleged that Iranian officials used the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah to carry out the deadly attack. Iran has long denied any involvement in the incident.
Both the United States and Argentina have designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
Most of the Lebanese citizens now being sought by Rafecas have ties to the porous tri-border region that connects Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay and that the United States has long said is a hub for terrorism financing.
Rafecas has called for the detention of Hussein Mounir Mouzannar, who has a Paraguayan national ID and could be living either in Paraguay or Brazil, as well as Farouk Abdul Hay Omairi, a naturalized Brazilian citizen whose last known address was on the Brazilian side of the tri-border region.
The other two people who are sought for questioning are Ali Hussein Abdallah, a naturalized Brazilian citizen who has both Brazilian and Paraguayan passports, and Abdallah Salman, who is believed to be living in Beirut.