International court rules: Argentina failed to prevent attack on Jewish center

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has found the Argentine state responsible for not preventing, nor properly investigating, an attack on a Jewish center 30 years ago that left 85 people dead, AFP reported on Friday.

It also blamed the state for efforts to "cover up and obstruct the investigation", robbing victims and their loved ones of justice, according to the report.

A truck laden with explosives drove into the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) a Jewish community center, and detonated on July 18, 1994, in the deadliest attack in the South American country's history. Besides the 85 dead, more than 300 people were injured.

The 1994 assault has never been claimed or solved, but Argentina and Israel have long suspected that Hezbollah carried it out at Iran's request.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica, said that Argentina was "responsible for not having adopted reasonable measures" to prevent the bombing.

"The state was aware of a situation of real and immediate risk for sites connected to the Jewish community and did not adopt reasonable measures" to ameliorate the danger, the judges concluded, according to AFP.

Through this failure, the state violated victims' right to life and personal integrity, as well as principles of equality and non-discrimination, said the court.

After the attack, it added, the state then failed in its duty to investigate "with due diligence and within a reasonable time," so violating victims' right to judicial protection.

The ruling comes two months after an Argentine court in April blamed Hezbollah for the attack and labeled Iran a "terrorist state."

After that ruling, Buenos Aires asked Interpol to arrest Iran's interior minister Ahmad Vahidi, whom it accuses of masterminding the attack.

Argentine prosecutors have long alleged that Iranian officials used the Lebanon-based Hezbollah to carry out the deadly attack. Iran denies involvement in the AMIA attack and has repeatedly rejected Argentine demands for the accused to testify.

An investigation by the Mossad found that the AMIA attack, as well as the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, were not abetted knowingly by Argentine citizens or aided by Iran on the ground.

In 2012, then-Argentine President Cristina Kirchner signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran that would have established a "truth commission" to investigate the AMIA bombing.

Leaders of Argentina's Jewish community criticized the accord. An Argentine court in 2014 declared the agreement to be unconstitutional.

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)