Panama's president: 'Terrorism' cause of 1994 plane crash
Juan Carlos Varela says will ask Panamanian and Israeli authorities to reinvestigate plane explosion in his country that killed 21 people, most of them Jewish, following Israeli intelligence reports 'that clearly show it was a terrorist attack.'
President Juan Carlos Varela told reporters that Israel provided reports late last year about the plane crash, whose victims included prominent Jewish Panamanian businessmen and which stirred suspicion of hate-motivated sabotage.
All of the plane's passengers, including four Israelis and prominent Jewish businesspeople from Panama, were killed in the crash.
The 1994 crash came soon after a bomb at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires killed 85 people, raising concerns that Jews worldwide could increasingly become the targets of militants amid tense peace talks in the Middle East.
Varela told reporters he will ask Panamanian and Israeli authorities to reinvestigate the incident.
“I’ve requested the re-opening of the case given intelligence reports that clearly show it was a terrorist attack,” he said.
The 1994 Panamanian President-elect, Ernest Perez Balladares, said at the time sources close to the investigation told him they believed the apparent mid-air explosion to have been caused by a bomb.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported at the time that a Panama government report had concluded that a Hamas terrorists, Ali Jamal, carried out a suicide bombing on the plane using a suitcase filled with explosives.
