Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas has issued an international arrest warrant today for four Lebanese citizens under suspicion of having participated in the 1994 terrorist attack against the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association, according to Télam judicial sources. The AMIA bombing killed 85 people and is the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina’s history.

The Prosecution Unit which investigates the AMIA bombing requested the arrest warrants in November and now, Rafecas has formally ordered them and submitted requests to Interpol. The four suspects, who may be residing in Paraguay, are accused of being “secondary participants” in the attack.

Rafecas issued the international arrest warrants “as their affiliation and/or collaboration with the criminal gang known as ‘Hezbollah’s armed wing’ has been sufficiently proven” and in order to hear the testimonies. The arrests may lead to extradition requests for the individuals involved.

According to investigation sources, the four suspects may have “cooperated and/or facilitated” different things for the organizers in the months before the bombing. 

The AMIA Prosecution Unit, led by Sebastián Bassi, requested the warrants due to evidence that was obtained from abroad in the last three years. 

One of the warrants is for a Lebanese citizen known as Samuel Salman El Reda. He also has an arrest warrant for the 1992 attack on the Israel embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 22 people and wounded over 200 — Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack until the AMIA bombing two years later. He has been wanted in connection to the AMIA bombing since 2009 and allegedly coordinated logistics for those who perpetrated the attack.

“[El Reda] was one of the leading agents locally when it came to the preparation and carrying out of the attack, fulfilling most of his duties from the Triple Frontier [between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil] with the support of operative groups belonging to Hezbollah in the region.”

Argentina designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 2019.

—Télam