Argentina Seeks Arrest Of Former Iranian President

The Iranian officials who have been charged in connection with the 1994 bombing (AFP) November 10, 2006 -- A judge in Argentina has issued international arrest warrants for former Iranian President Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and eight other former Iranian officials in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires..

Eighty-five people died in the bombing.


Iran has rejected the step, with Mohsen Baharvand, Iran's charge d'affaires in Argentina, telling Reuters that Iranian officials would urge Interpol not to act on the warrants.


Federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, who issued the arrest order, called the bombing a "crime against humanity."


"We activate the arrest warrant, on the one hand, with a request to Interpol requesting the capture of certain people, and with an international exhortation that would be transmitted by the chancellery at the right time, soliciting that they proceed with the detention," Corral said.


No one has ever been convicted in connection with the attack in July, 1994. Iran and its ally, the Lebanese-based Shi'ite militia Hizballah, have denied any involvement in the blast.


Rafsanjani is currently the head of Iran's Expediency Council.


(Reuters, AFP)

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