Dateline: LONDONA former Iranian ambassador to Argentina, wanted there in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center in which 85 people were killed, was arrested Thursday in northern England.
Police in Durham, northeast England, arrested Hade Soleimanpour, 47, at his home there on an extradition warrant, police sources said.
Soleimanpour is to appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London on Friday, Metropolitan Police headquarters in London said.
They said the warrant issued Thursday at Bow Street alleges that "on or before" July 18, 1994, Soleimanpour conspired with others to murder persons at the Asociacion Mutua Israelita Argentina _ the Jewish Community Center AMIA.
The Iranian government has several times denied any responsibility in the AMIA attack.
Argentine federal judge Juan Jose Galeano, who is investigating the terrorist attack in which a car bomb killed 85 and wounded more than 200, had requested the arrest of Soleimanpour.
Soleimanpour was Iranian ambassador to Argentina at the time of the explosion.
He has been in the United Kingdom since February 2002 on a student visa and was studying at Durham University, police sources said.
In March, Galeano asked Interpol to arrest four Iranian diplomats, accusing them of responsibility for a deadly terrorist attack. On Aug. 13, he added the order of detention of eight more Iranian citizens. It was not immediately clear in what countries the other suspects live.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, has rejected allegations of Iranian involvement in the bombing.
The bombing was the worst terrorist attack in the history of Argentina.
Galeano said in a 400-page document to Interpol that he considered it beyond question that "radical elements of the Islamic Republic of Iran" were responsible for the bombing.
Galeano did not directly blame the Iranian government but claimed that Moshen Rabbani, former cultural attache in the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires, was a "key element in the organized group" that staged the terrorist attack.
Argentina and Iran recalled their ambassadors after the 1994 attack, but diplomatic relations were not interrupted.
Jewish leaders have criticized the Argentine government for failing to bring anyone to justice for the attack, or for a previous bombing, in March 1992, which had destroyed the Israeli Embassy and killed 29 people.
New Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, speaking on last month's anniversary of the attack, called lack of progress in the investigation "a national disgrace" and said his government would do all it could to give new impetus to the investigation.
Soon after he took office May 25, Kirchner signed an executive decree opening secret intelligence documents to aid prosecutors working on the attacks. He also ordered Argentine intelligence agents to testify about what they know about the bombings.
(acw)
British police arrest former Iranian envoy in connection with bombing in Argentina00-00-0000
Dateline: LONDONA former Iranian ambassador to Argentina, wanted there in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center in which 85 people were killed, was arrested Thursday in northern England.
Police in Durham, northeast England, arrested Hade Soleimanpour, 47, at his home there on an extradition warrant, police sources said.
Soleimanpour is to appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London on Friday, Metropolitan Police headquarters in London said.
They said the warrant issued Thursday at Bow Street alleges that "on or before" July 18, 1994, Soleimanpour conspired with others to murder persons at the Asociacion Mutua Israelita Argentina _ the Jewish Community Center AMIA.
The Iranian government has several times denied any responsibility in the AMIA attack.
Argentine federal judge Juan Jose Galeano, who is investigating the terrorist attack in which a car bomb killed 85 and wounded more than 200, had requested the arrest of Soleimanpour.
Soleimanpour was Iranian ambassador to Argentina at the time of the explosion.
He has been in the United Kingdom since February 2002 on a student visa and was studying at Durham University, police sources said.
In March, Galeano asked Interpol to arrest four Iranian diplomats, accusing them of responsibility for a deadly terrorist attack. On Aug. 13, he added the order of detention of eight more Iranian citizens. It was not immediately clear in what countries the other suspects live.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, has rejected allegations of Iranian involvement in the bombing.
The bombing was the worst terrorist attack in the history of Argentina.
Galeano said in a 400-page document to Interpol that he considered it beyond question that "radical elements of the Islamic Republic of Iran" were responsible for the bombing.
Galeano did not directly blame the Iranian government but claimed that Moshen Rabbani, former cultural attache in the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires, was a "key element in the organized group" that staged the terrorist attack.
Argentina and Iran recalled their ambassadors after the 1994 attack, but diplomatic relations were not interrupted.
Jewish leaders have criticized the Argentine government for failing to bring anyone to justice for the attack, or for a previous bombing, in March 1992, which had destroyed the Israeli Embassy and killed 29 people.
New Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, speaking on last month's anniversary of the attack, called lack of progress in the investigation "a national disgrace" and said his government would do all it could to give new impetus to the investigation.
Soon after he took office May 25, Kirchner signed an executive decree opening secret intelligence documents to aid prosecutors working on the attacks. He also ordered Argentine intelligence agents to testify about what they know about the bombings.
(acw)
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