MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pro-Kirchner picket leader meets in Iran with fugitive from Argentine law

Luis D'Elía met with Mohsen Rabbani accused of masterminding the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina

Argentine pro-government picket leader Luis D'Elía, justified his trip to Iran and his meeting with Mohsen Rabbani, a former Iranian official who is considered to be one of the masterminds in the 1994 deadly terrorist attack of the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish centre and remains fugitive from the Argentine law.

D'Elía explained that Rabbani simply doesn't want to come and face charges in Argentina because “he knows for well that he's been condemned in advance”.

The picket leader who is known to acts as a goon for the Kirchner couple’s administration also remarked that “Rabbani was inserted into the case by two foreign intelligence services that have nothing to do with the AMIA case”.

Nevertheless D'Elía assured that the terrorist attack must not remain unpunished, and claimed the Argentine Justice ”to investigate and condemn the authors but not to listen to Israel, US and the UK on what should be done”.

The prosecutor in the AMIA probe, Alberto Nisman, said that D’Elía’s statements are a “provocation” and that they do not contribute to the investigation. Jewish community leaders and Israel’s ambassador in Buenos Aires also harshly criticized his attitude.

Rabbani is suspected of planning the attack that killed 85 people, along with other former officials from the Iranian government. An Argentine judge issued an arrest warrant against Rabbani, and he is also wanted by the Interpol.

D’Elía described Rabbani as a “deputy and religious authority who worked for 14 years in Argentina.”

“Rabbani was not sentenced by the Argentina judiciary, he was indicted by a prosecutor who is maliciously Zionist,” said D’Elía, and added that Rabbani “was a very beloved person in the neighbourhood of Floresta, where he developed his religious activity.”

The Iranian government has refused to turn in Rabbani and the other seven Iranian citizens suspected of masterminding the blast.

D’Elía last week he travelled to Iran with his wife, Buenos Aires province legislator Alicia Sánchez. He was invited by the Iranian government to attend the celebrations to mark the anniversary of the 1979 revolution

AMIA head Guillermo Borger said that D’Elía’s trip to Iran “is completely contradictory” with the policies of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who last year requested Iran’s cooperation in the AMIA probe at the United Nations’ General Assembly.