AFP: Iran on Saturday dismissed as legally baseless an Argentine judge’s order for former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and otherss to be arrested over a deadly 1994 bombing. TEHRAN, Nov 11, 2006 (AFP) – Iran on Saturday dismissed as legally baseless an Argentine judge’s order for former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and otherss to be arrested over a deadly 1994 bombing.
“The Argentine court verdict is legally baseless and the accusations are baseless,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted as saying by state television.
An Argentine judge issued an international arrest warrant Thursday for Rafsanjani and a host of former top officials over “crimes against humanity” in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish charity in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.
Lawyers for the charity, the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association, have long accused the Shiite militia Hezbollah, based in Lebanon and backed by Iran, of carrying out the attack. Iran and Hezbollah has always denied involvement.
“So far no evidence has been produced saying the Islamic Republic of Iran is involved in the incident,” said Hosseini.
“It is clear that the latest move is a Zionist-American conspiracy to weaken Iran in the nuclear case as well as cover up the failure of the Zionist regime (Israel) in the latest war on Lebanon,” he added.
Rafsanjani was president at the time of the bombing. Also named in the warrants were ex-intelligence minister Ali Fallahijan, former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati and former head of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai.
Last month, Argentine prosecutors charged Iran’s “highest authorities” at the time with directing Hezbollah to carry out the attack. No one has ever been convicted for the bombing.
