Memorial site for AMIA attack (Photo: AP)
Photo: AP
Argentine Jews urge pres. to solve terror bombing
22 years after the worst terror attack Argentina has seen, the Jewish community demands that their government find and persecute those behind it; 'If those responsible don't face justice, we'll soon have to issue a death certificate for the case itself',' said one of the victims' mother.
Jewish leaders asked Argentine President Mauricio Macri to help solve the AMIA Jewish center bombing, considered Argentina’s worst terror attack in history, as Argentina observed the bombing's 22nd anniversary Monday.
The 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association’s main building had caused it to collapse, killing 85 and leaving hundreds injured in the rubble.
Protestors rally to bring justice to AMIA victims (Photo: AP)
During the ceremony, Macri presented a flower wreath as sirens blared and the families of the victims held photographs of their loved ones.
Survivors also criticized previous governments for not solving the crime. "The justice they deserved is as dead as them," Sofia de Guterman said about her daughter, Andrea Guterman, and other victims during the ceremony held at the reconstructed building. She continued by saying that "If those responsible don't face justice, we'll soon have to issue a death certificate for the case itself."
Prosecutors have previously accused Iranian officials of being behind the bombing, but no one has been convicted in the attack, which many Argentines believe has come to symbolize an inept and corrupt justice system.
"It's been 22 years of not knowing what went on as a result of badly introduced evidence, other evidence that hasn't even been considered and documents that the executive power hid from judges," Mario Cimadevilla, head of a special investigative unit focused on the attack, told local radio.
During the ceremony, some also called for answers in the mysterious death of Alberto Nisman, the leading prosecutor investigating the case, whose body was discovered in his apartment on Jan. 18, 2015 with a gunshot wound to the head. Nisman was scheduled to go before Congress the next day to present allegations that then-President Cristina Fernandez orchestrated a secret deal to cover up Iranian officials' alleged role in the attack. Fernandez denied it and judges later threw out the case. A year and a half after Nisman's death, authorities have yet to determine whether he took his own life or was killed by someone else.
Conspiracy theories swirl around the case. Some people believe Nisman killed himself because he felt his claims against Fernandez lacked proof, while others say he was slain because he was a threat to the Argentine and Iranian governments.
