MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's Jewish community urges for Nisman's death inquiry to continue

“Society cannot resign itself to impunity and permanent suspicion. A society where there is no truth or justice is one with no future,” asserted Jmelnitzky.

The president of Argentina's Jewish organization AMIA, president Leonardo Jmelnitzky urged for prosecutor Alberto Nisman´s suspicious death inquiry to continue, and pointed out that the institution is waiting for the confirmation of the unconstitutional nature of Iran´s Memorandum.

 “Society cannot resign itself to impunity and permanent suspicion. A society where there is no truth or justice is one with no future,” asserted Jmelnitzky.

In July 1994 AMIA's several floors headquarters was blown up in Argentina's worst terrorist attack killing 85 and injuring hundreds. So far the case remains unsolved and over a decade ago then President Nestor Kirchner named a special prosecutor for the AMIA case, Alberto Nisman.

After ten years of investigation which strongly pointed to Iran as the brains behind and Hezbollah the executor, Nisman last January filed charges against President Cristina Fernandez (wife of former president Nestor Kirchner), foreign minister Hector Timerman and several top officials from the Argentine administration.

Argentina was shocked at the news, and hours before Nisman was scheduled to declare to a congressional committee on his findings and charges, he was found dead in his apartment with a bullet in his head, and so far the investigation has been unable to determine whether it was a suicide or homicide.

Allegedly the charges against the Argentine president and some of her officials derive from the Memorandum of Understanding which was signed with Iran with the hopes, according to president Cristina Fernandez, that Teheran authorities collaborated with the AMIA investigation.

The MoU was signed in 2013, was approved by the Argentine congress under protest from the opposition, not even considered by the Iranian assembly, and later declared unconstitutional by the Argentine Supreme Court.

According to Nisman's case the Argentine government sponsored the MoU as a mechanism to cover up Iranian participation in the attack in exchange for increased trade, including oil and food, both reciprocally needed by the two strong-currency-short countries. One because of the ongoing litigation with speculative funds which limit Argentina's access to world money markets and Iran under the West's embargo for allegedly working on the development of nuclear weapons.

In an interview broadcasted on Sunday on Argentina's public television, TV Pública in the program “AMIA, the legacy”, the head of the institution said that “Nisman´s death was a traumatic incident that put the AMIA case back in the spotlight but in the worst way possible, spreading more doubts than ever and with an accusation made against President Cristina Fernández.”

Jmelnitzky stated that AMIA obviously “will continue to reject the memorandum signed between Argentina and Iran”, aiming to move forward in the investigation of the terrorist attack committed on the Jewish headquarters on July 18 1994.

“This Memorandum is a step back in the case”, he affirmed.

Jmelnitzky said that “the characteristics of the Memorandum, the ambiguity of its text, the different ways of interpretation, don´t make it a serious document at all.”

He also indicated that the institution is considering presenting the AMIA case to international courts and asserted that “the investigation is responsibility of the Argentine State.”

“If there is something I am proud of is the fact that AMIA has always preserved its independence from all political factions. AMIA is independent, free and we can make mistakes of course, but we are always defending what is good for the institution,” explained Jmelnitzky.