Horacio Rosatti excused himself from intervening in the AMIA I case and three associate judges have already been appointed

Supreme Court President Horacio Rosatti on Tuesday declined to take part in the case opened for irregularities and crimes committed during the investigation into the AMIA case, the bombing of the Jewish community center on July 18, 1994, which caused the death of 85 people.

The judge announced his excuse "for reasons of decorum and delicacy" in the context of the case that reached the highest court days ago because he was Minister of Justice and Human Rights of the Nation between July 2004 and July 2005, judicial sources informed Clarín .

From that position, he announced and signed decree 812/2005 in which the Argentine State acknowledged its responsibility for the denial of justice and the consequences of the failure to clarify the attack. Thus, the judges appointed by decree Ariel Lijo and Manuel García-Mansilla will not be able to vote on this sensitive issue.

In light of this and other excuses, three associate judges of the presidents of the federal chambers of the country have already been drawn and chosen, who will decide whether to ratify the convictions and acquittals in the case . This is the first time that this mechanism has been used since the retirement of Juan Carlos Maqueda in December.

Based on the agreement signed in Washington before the IACHR, the Executive Branch committed to implementing various types of measures to support the investigation, including the creation of the AMIA Unit of the Ministry of Justice and the strengthening of the Special AMIA Prosecution Unit of the Public Prosecutor's Office, headed by prosecutor Alberto Nisman. The attack on the AMIA was declared a crime against humanity in 2006 by former federal judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, a criterion ratified in higher courts, meaning that there is no statute of limitations.

The case for irregularities in the investigation of the AMIA bombing was activated in 2003, after the Third Federal Oral Court, which conducted the first oral trial for the explosion, acquitted all the accused and exposed various crimes that were committed during the investigation. There it was determined that there was a "spurious and illegal" payment of 400 thousand dollars with SIDE funds that was given to Carlos Telleldín, the only person arrested at the time, two years after the attack, prior to a statement in the main case in which he accused a group of Buenos Aires police officers of having taken the bombed-out van. The court proved the so-called "fruit of the poisoned tree" doctrine and annulled the case. But years later the Court legitimized the case up to before the payment to Telleldín in 1998.

The day after the ruling, Rosatti referred to the verdict and said that it was a “very brave” decision. He also warned that the Government was going to “deepen the investigations so that the officials involved in hiding the truth receive the corresponding punishment.” He also assured that the decision should be taken as “a starting point and not an end point.”

The trial for the irregularities took place between 2015 and 2019 and was conducted by the Second Federal Oral Court. The first judge in the case, Juan José Galeano, was convicted there; the former head of Carlos Menem's SIDE, Hugo Anzorreguy, and several spies; the former prosecutors Eamon Mullen and José Barbaccia y Telleldín, among others. Former President Carlos Menem and the others implicated in the so-called "Syrian lead" that the court declared non-existent, despite statements by former President Cristina Kirchner to the contrary, were also acquitted.

Last year, the Federal Court of Criminal Appeals signed two resolutions in which, on the one hand, it confirmed the majority of the convictions for the irregularities case (modifying some sentences). And it also ratified the acquittal of Carlos Telleldín, in the second trial against him for the attack. All of this was appealed by the parties and reviewed by the Supreme Court of Justice.

According to the investigation, based on reports from the Argentine, American and Israeli intelligence services, the attack on the AMIA was ordered by the Iranian government at the time and carried out by the Hezbollah party of Lebanon.

The Argentine justice system has accused a group of Iranian officials and a Lebanese citizen of being the alleged perpetrators. None of them have appeared before the Argentine authorities or agreed to be questioned in the case. Interpol has issued red alerts for the arrest of several of them.