MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Buenos Aires federal court finds no evidence to convict Menem of AMIA bombing cover-up

“In life you have to know how to tolerate, wait and forgive,” said Menem after his acquittal.

Former Argentine president and current senator Carlos Menem was acquitted Thursday in the trial for the cover-up of the 1994 attack on the headquarters of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA).

The 2nd Federal Criminal Court (TOCF) of the city of Buenos Aires found no evidence to convict Menem after three years of hearings.

Justices Jorge Luciano Gorini, Néstor Guillermo Costabel and Karina Rosario Perilli also issued a not-guilty verdict for former Delegation of Israelite Argentine Associations (DAIA) head Rubén Beraja but handed down jail sentences for former Federal Judge Juan José Galeano, former head of the State Intelligence (SIDE) Hugo Anzorreguy, and Carlos Alberto Telleldín, who supplied the van which carried the explosives into the AMIA building.

The entire judicial case hinged on the payment of 400 thousand US dollars to Telleldín, who is said to have supplied the Renault Traffic van used as a car bomb in the attack, to incriminate Buenos Aires provincial Police officers.

The judicial process began in August 2015 to determine the individual responsibilities in the intentional misleading to the original investigation of one of the biggest terrorist attacks in Argentine history.

The AMIA bombing took place on July 18, 1994 in the City of Buenos Aires (capital). It left 85 people dead and more than 300 injured. Almost 25 years later, the attack has not been clarified nor has the identity of its material and intellectual authors been reliably determined.

Menem celebrated the ruling. “I am happy,” Menem was quoted as telling his lawyer Luis Daer.

The former president also told his daughter Zulemita upon leaving the courthouse that “in life you have to know how to tolerate, wait and forgive.”

MercoPress - Buenos Aires