MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Four Lebanese nationals wanted in Argentina in AMIA bombing probe

The four suspects are believed to have helped the actual perpetrators of the bombing into the country

Argentine Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas Thursday ordered the arrest of four Lebanese nationals for their alleged involvement in the July 18, 1994, bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Welfare Association (AMIA) headquarters in Buenos Aires.

“In this address Hussein Mounir Mouzannar, Alí Hussein Abdallah, Abdallah Salman, and Farouk Abdul Hay Omairi, and at the request of the Instructing Prosecutor, the summons to give a statement in the case was ordered, by virtue of which their national and international arrests were ordered,” Judge Rafecas stated in the official document.

The suspects, who are believed to have helped the actual perpetrators into the country, are reportedly somewhere in Paraguay in the area of the Triple Border. The judge's decision was taken at the request of the UFI-AMIA prosecuting unit. In his request, Prosecutor Sebastián Basso said that the suspects might have “cooperated and/or facilitated” in various aspects related to the logistics of the attack in the previous months. Suspect Abdallah Salman also has an arrest warrant on him from the Supreme Court for the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in March of 1992.

In his ruling, Judge Rafecas said the Lebanese nationals need to be arrested by Interpol “because [of] their membership and/or cooperation with the criminal gang called 'armed wing' of Hezbollah, aggravated by its discriminatory purpose.”