2023-07-16 23:32:14
Hours following the 29th anniversary of the attack once morest the AMIA, a citizen of Lebanese origin, accused of having a rather distant relationship with the attack, appeared for the first time before the Argentine Justice and asked to testify. In reality, the prosecutor Sebastián Basso accuses Hussein Mounier Mouzannar of having provided a work certificate in 1993 to a subject named Salman El Reda, who has numerous aliases, and who was supposedly a central protagonist of the attack once morest the Jewish mutual. The work certificate was one of the documents that allowed El Reda to obtain citizenship and later the Paraguayan passport, one of the many documents with which he moved through different countries and would have been the organizer not only of the attack once morest AMIA but also once morest the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. Prosecutor Basso requested the capture of Mouzannar in June, a measure that was validated by Judge Daniel Rafecas and now the Paraguayan/Lebanese presented a lawyer, Andres Gramajo, who told the prosecutor that he wants to testify, that he does not remember knowing El Reda , that he does not recognize his signature on the certificate either and that, in any case, he has not the slightest relationship with Hezbollah or with terrorism.
Phone from Lebanon
Mouzannar is well known in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, where he built a veritable commercial emporium. The arrest warrant led to the seizure of all his assets and, according to the AMIA prosecutor’s office, the same day the arrest warrant was issued, Mouzannar took a plane from Brazil to Lebanon. From there and through members of the Lebanese community in Buenos Aires, he made contact with the lawyer Gramajo and he appeared at the prosecutor’s office last Friday.
As Gramajo told Página/12, his client wants to testify, but it is not certain that he wants to do so while in custody in Buenos Aires. The arrest warrant implies that as soon as he arrives at an airport, they will handcuff him. Therefore, a logical deduction is that he wants to declare remotely, from Lebanon, something that would be difficult for someone who, from a judicial point of view, is a fugitive.
“Mouzannar doesn’t remember anything from 1993,” Gramajo insisted. He doesn’t remember issuing that work certificate and he’s sure he doesn’t even know this El Reda guy. It would be necessary to see the certificate and examine the signature, because Mouzannar thinks that it might not be his. He was a well-known person in the Lebanese community in Paraguay. Of course, my client assures that he never had the slightest relationship with El Reda, much less with Hezbollah or with terrorism ”.
Although he did not say so, Gramajo implied that in an immigrant community it is not unusual for someone to do another a favor, without it having to do with their activities.
typical plays
As this newspaper published on June 16, a huge fuss was made over the request for the capture of four people of Lebanese origin. From the titles, it seemed that they were four dangerous terrorists, and it turned out that those wanted are merchants who allegedly helped El Reda obtain Paraguayan nationality and passport in the early 1990s. He already had a Colombian passport at that time. .
These were the defendants:
* Mouzannar signed a work certificate.
* Ali Hussein Abdallah would have obtained a certificate of residence for him.
* Farouk Omairi participated in the procedures, because he had a tourism agency that was dedicated to that.
* Abdallah Salman, alias José El Reda, who has been ordered for his arrest for a while, is the brother of Salman El Reda and would have assisted him in everything. Abdallah has already been detained in Argentina following he tried to introduce false dollars. That was in 1992.
Prosecutor Basso accused the four of them of being part of an illegal association, Hezbollah, to carry out terrorist actions. But in his opinion, no other action or relationship with Hezbollah is attributed to them. The usual in the AMIA case, large titles, little or no evidence.
declaring is not easy
As is logical, there is no legal validity for a lawyer to appear at the public prosecutor’s office-AMIA with an authorization signed by Mouzannar. A certified signature is required, in this case before the Argentine embassy in Beirut. As reported by Dr. Gramajo, the process is underway.
However, it will be necessary to see if the prosecutor and the judge accept that a lawyer for a fugitive appear. What’s more, a request has already been sent to Lebanon for Mouzannar to be arrested and handed over to the Argentine Justice. With this perspective, it does not seem likely that it will be accepted to take a statement via Zoom.
So the logic is that Mouzannar will have to decide if he comes to Argentina, agrees to be detained for a while, declares and asks for his release, with the risk that it will not be granted.
In August 2003, the former Iranian ambassador to Argentina Hadi Soleimanpour was arrested in London at the request of the national Justice. Then-judge Juan José Galeano sent nearly 400 pages of evidence, but a British judge and later the Home Secretary agreed there was insufficient evidence once morest him. He was released in mid-September 2003, meaning that it took regarding 20 days until he was able to return to Tehran.
The accusation once morest Mouzannar is much lighter than once morest Soleimanpour, accused of allowing the attack on AMIA. Even so, the Argentine Justice – and especially the AMIA prosecutor’s office – has always magnified the tests and evidence, so the Lebanese must calculate that it will not be easy for him to get them to unlink him. What’s more, the file has a marked geopolitical impact, with pressure from the American and Israeli right-wing, as well as the leadership of the Argentine Jewish community, all focused on holding Hezbollah and Iran responsible for the attack. Last year, shortly following the 28th anniversary, a report by the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service was released -published by The New York Times- which assured that neither the Argentines nor the Iranians collaborated with the attack, but that showed once once more that the AMIA case consists much more of intelligence reports than judicial evidence.
On the 29th anniversary of the attack, it seems clear that the Argentine security forces and justice might not clarify the attack. Today, it remains unknown where the explosive came from, where the truck-bomb was armed, who entered the country to organize the attack, and who drove the Trafic to Pasteur Street. Of course, what was not investigated in the first week is difficult to find out almost 30 years later.
The acts
This Tuesday, in front of the property where the attack took place, at Pasteur 633, at 9:53, the time the bomb exploded, AMIA and DAIA will lead the official act for the 29th anniversary. The closure will be in charge of the head of AMIA, Amos Linetzky. In principle, three relatives of the victims and a friend will speak, giving testimony of these 29 years of failure in the investigation.
This same Tuesday, also at 9.53, in Plaza Lavalle, in front of the Courts, there will be an act of Active Memory, the group of friends and relatives of the victims. The title of the act is “Testimony of impunity: a guilty State for lack of justice and for not protecting life.” The speakers will be Rodrigo Borda, the lawyer from Memoria Activa, the member of CELS Paula Litvachky, and Adriana Reisfeld and Diana Malamud, referents from Memoria Activa, will close.
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