Former Iranian diplomat faces extradition
A former Iranian ambassador to Argentina has been arrested in the UK on suspicion of orchestrating the 1994 bombing of community centre for Jews in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in which 85 people died and left 200 wounded.
Hadi Soleimanpour, 47, is due to appear at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court in London on Friday.
Extradition is an option for magistrates.
Mr Soleimanpour was arrested in north-eastern England, where he works as a research assistant at Durham University.
Mr Soleimanpour was arrested on an extradition warrant. It is alleged that on or before July 18, 1994, Mr Soleimanpur “did conspire with other persons to murder persons” at the Association Mutua Israelita Argentina (AMIA).
In Argentina, earlier this month, Judge Juan Jose Galeanoissued issued warrants for the arrest of Mr Soleimanpour and seven other Iranian diplomats on charges that they plotted the bombing.
The Iranian government has on several occasions denied any responsibility in the AMIA attack.
Last week, Tehran condemned the warrant to arrest the eight Iranian officials as part of “international Zionism’s plan to manipulate Argentina.”
Marta Nercellas, the lawyer representing the AMIA centre in Buenos Aires, told Argentinian television Mr Soleimanpour “participated in a very concrete way in organising the attack. The (Iranian) embassy in Argentina was used as the base from which they gathered intelligence information that had to do with the massacre.”
