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Interpol issues wanted notices for Iranians
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reuters india on 08 November, 2007 08:21:00
 
By Tom Pfeiffer
MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - Interpol issued wanted notices for five Iranians
and one Lebanese national on Wednesday in connection with the 1994 bombing of a
Jewish center in Argentina in which 85 people were killed.
Despite heavy diplomatic pressure from Iran, delegates at the world police
body's annual general assembly in Morocco voted by 66 percent in favor of
issuing the "Red Notices" seeking the extradition of the wanted people,
delegates said.
Argentina last year issued international arrest warrants for former Iranian
President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, seven other Iranians, and a former leading
figure in the Hezbollah guerrilla group on charges of masterminding the attack.
Interpol said in March it would issue its own wanted notices against six of the
nine, leaving out Rafsanjani.
Iran has repeatedly denied any link to the bombing and says Interpol risks
being dragged away from police work into the realm of politics. Tehran blames
the United States and Israel for trying to implicate the Islamic Republic in the
attack.
In a statement after the vote, Interpol President Jackie Selebi said Argentina
and Iran had been treated fairly and impartially, but an Iranian official
slammed the move.
"It is a political vote and not acceptable for us," an Iranian delegate who
asked not to be named told Reuters.
"The testimony is not credible."
The delegate said Argentina had been told to produce new evidence to back up
the arrest notices but had not done so.
WANTED NOTICES
The wanted notices were issued for Ali Fallahijan, Mohsen Rabbani, Ahmad Reza
Asghari, Ahmad Vahidi, Mohsen Rezai and Imad Fayez Moughnieh, the ex-Hezbollah
leader whom the Argentine Foreign Ministry and prosecutors' office identified as
a Lebanese citizen.
Iran would review the situation and determine how to react, the delegate added.
Argentine officials welcomed the vote.
"This step confirms the international community's majority support for helping
the Argentine justice system solve this terrible crime," the Foreign Ministry
said in a statement.
In Buenos Aires, the judge in charge of the bombing case said the decision was
a success for Argentina, but acknowledged the Iranians could only be arrested if
they left their country.
"I understand that the majority of them are in Iran and they will not be
leaving Iran," federal judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral told local TV.
The cat-and-mouse diplomacy took another turn in August when an Iranian court
sent Argentina a summons for five Argentines, accusing them of "actions against
the security of the Islamic Republic."
Interpol, which was holding its annual general assembly in Marrakesh, Morocco,
issued over 2,800 red notices last year.
The notices seek the arrest of a wanted person with a view to extradition but
do not force a country to arrest suspects.
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner has urged the United Nations to help secure
Iran's collaboration with the probe.
(Additional reporting from Cesar Illiano in Buenos Aires; Editing by Stuart
Grudgings)