Last update - 00:00 16/08/2007
Iran summons Argentines over probe into bombing of Jewish community center
By The Associated Press
An Iranian court has summoned five former Argentine government officials to journey to Iran and answer charges involving their roles in an investigation that implicated Iran in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina's capital.
Iran is charging them with working against the country's security, the state television reported Thursday. Eighty-five people were killed and 200 were wounded in the Buenos Aires bombing.
The Tehran court summoned former federal Judge Juan Jose Galeano, Interior Minister Carlos Corach, chief prosecutors Eamon Mullen and Jose Barbaccia, and Ruben Beraja, a banker and former head of the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations.
The report said the five officials had been informed of the summons via diplomatic channels and if they did not travel to Iran and appear in court in the coming days, international arrest warrants would be issued against them.
More Argentines could be summoned in the future, the report added.
Argentina's foreign ministry rejected Tehran's request, saying it seemed to be a political reprisal to Argentine efforts to find and detain Iranians involved in the community center bombing.