An Argentine judge has asked Colombia and Lebanon to help arrest a man suspected of orchestrating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish charities building in Buenos Aires that killed 85, court sources told AFP on Tuesday.

The bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association, a Buenos Aires headquarters of Jewish charity groups, has gone unsolved for a decade and a half. Some 300 people were wounded in the attack.

Argentine investigators have blamed former top officials in Iran for being behind the bombing, and in mid-May issued an international arrest warrant for Samuel Salman El Reda, a Colombian of Lebanese descent, in connection with the bombing.

At the time of the bombing El Reda lived in Buenos Aires, and according to Prosecutor Alberto Nisman, was the link between Iran and Hizbullah, who investigators say were behind the attack.

El Reda lived in Buenos Aires until the day of the bombing -- July 18, 1994. His current whereabouts are unknown, but his wife recently traveled to Lebanon, where El Reda has relatives, officials said.

Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, in charge of the case, is to send representatives to Colombia and Lebanon to explain the case and ask for help, a court source told AFP speaking on condition of anonymity.

Canicoba Corral earlier called for the arrest of several former Iranian officials in connection with the bombing, including ex-president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, former security minister Ali Fallahijan, ex-foreign minister Ali Velayati, former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezai, and Mohsen Rabbani, who worked at Iran's embassy in Buenos Aires.

Officials in Tehran have rejected all charges related to the case, and has refused to collaborate with Argentine investigators.

A 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 22 people and wounded 200 also remains unsolved.

Argentina has South America's largest Jewish community.(AFP)
 
Beirut, 02 Oct 09, 07:39

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