March 15, 2019
A 3-1/2-year-long trial in Argentina has convicted the judge who ran the investigation into the bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish community center of covering up what happened. But it didn’t explain why he did that.
Former Judge Juan Jose Galeano—who for a decade led the investigation into Argentina’s worst terror attack—was jailed for six years for embezzlement and concealment of evidence.
But the country’s former president, Carlos Menem, was acquitted of all cover-up charges.
Former intelligence chief Hugo Anzorreguy was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in jail for also obstructing the probe of the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) center, which killed 85 people and injured 300 others.
They were among 13 defendants facing a slew of corruption and obstruction of justice charges in a trial before three judges that ended February 28.
No one has ever been convicted of the bombing, though Argentina—and Israel—have long pointed their fingers at Iran. The body of the suicide number was that of a Lebanese Hezbollah operative. Investigations have concluded that the cultural attache at the Iranian embassy organized the bombing.
Nearly 25 years after the bombing, the court also sentenced Carlos Telledin, a used car dealer who sold the van that contained the bomb, to 3-1/2 years in jail.
Prosecutors said Galeano paid Telledin—who was also a police informant—$400,000 to implicate a group of police officers early on in the probe. That was one of the charges of which Galeano was found guilty.
Galeano however denied prosecutors’ assertions that he had acted on the orders of then-President Menem, who is now 88 and served from 1988 to 1999.
The aging statesman gave little away in his testimony to the court, keeping mum on what his lawyer said were state secrets that could affect Argentina’s “peaceful coexistence with other nations,” which were not named.
The case is seen by many in Argentina as a gruesome example of how rife with corruption and ineptitude the Argentine law enforcement and justice systems have become. A now-retired American FBI agent who was sent to Argentina to help with the probe said he had no doubt Iran was behind the bombing but that you would never be able to prove that in an American court because the investigation was so badly bungled.
Menem, who was born in Argentina of Syrian parents, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2013 for violating an international arms embargo in a weapons deal. Again, in 2015, he received a four-and-a-half-year sentence for bribing officials. But his status as a member of the Argentine Senate means that he does not go to jail. Argentine law allows a senator to be tried but not imprisoned.
Galeano, the ex-judge, said during the trial that the investigation was flawed by problems within the Argentine secret services. He was accused of acting on Menem’s orders to stop enquiring into bombing links to Syrian friends of Menem.
In addition to Galeano and the intelligence chief, two police officers and two former prosecutors in the case were also sentenced to jail time.
A former Jewish community leader, Ruben Beraja, as well as a lawyer and two former members of the intelligence services, were acquitted.
Prosecutors have separately indicted ex-President Cristina Kirchner for whitewashing Iran’s alleged role in the attack. She is still awaiting trial.
Tehran has always refused to hand over a half-dozen Iranian officials that Argentina has sought for planning the attack.