An Argentine prosecutor accused Iran yesterday of establishing terrorist networks in Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname and Latin America dating back to the 1980s and said he would send his findings to courts in the affected countries.
Reuters reported State prosecutor Alberto Nisman as referring to the case of former PNCR MP Abdul Kadir who was jailed for life by a New York court in 2010 for his role in a plot to blow up the John F Kennedy Airport.
Nisman is investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. Argentine courts have long accused Iran of sponsoring the attack.
Iran, which remains locked in a nerve-jangling dispute with world powers over its disputed nuclear programme, denies links to the blast.
In a 500-page-long document, Nisman cited what he said was evidence of Iran’s “intelligence and terrorist network” in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname – among others.
Nisman said new evidence underscored the responsibility of Mohsen Rabbani, the former Iranian cultural attache in Argentina, as mastermind of the community centre bombing and “coordinator of the Iranian infiltration of South America, especially in Guyana.”
Nisman said U.S. court documents showed Islamist militant Kadir was Rabbani’s disciple. Kadir has maintained his innocence of the plot and has never addressed the details of his ties with Iran or what Tehran’s motives were for extending its largesse here.
Kadir “received instructions” from Rabbani “and carried out the Iranian infiltration in Guyana, whose structure was nearly identical … to that established by Rabbani in Argentina,” the prosecutor wrote.
Nisman urged Interpol to intensify its efforts to execute the arrest warrants.
Kadir, 58, served as a PNCR MP in the eighth Parliament of Guyana, from 2002 to 2006. He is also a former mayor of Linden. He was arrested in June 2007 on a plane in Trinidad on his way to Iran. He was charged along with four others. The bomb plot was hatched in January 2006 and reportedly involved blowing up jet fuel tanks leading to the airport.
Kadir had testified that he was not involved in the terrorism scheme but that he had feigned interest in the plan because he hoped its architects would help him raise money to build a mosque.
Once on the stand during the trial, the prosecution confronted him with evidence of his ties to Iran. The evidence included letters Kadir wrote to the Iranian ambassador to Venezuela and to the Iranian diplomat who has been accused of leading a major terrorist plot in South America, the New York Times reported.
While on the stand, Kadir denied an accusation by the US that he spent years secretly working as a spy for Iran and that he allegedly relayed information about Guyana’s economy, foreign policy and military to Iranian officials. However, according to a Bloomberg report, Kadir admitted under cross-examination that he drafted regular reports for the Iranian ambassador to Venezuela, including details like the “low morale” in the Guyanese army. The documents he allegedly drafted included a five-year development plan to promote Islam in Guyana, which included references to infiltrating the military, police and other government agencies.
The April 2, 2004 abduction and murder of Iranian cleric Mohammed Hussein Ibrahim was also believed to be linked to covert operations by Tehran here. The gruesome killing remains unsolved and it was speculated that interests opposed to Tehran were responsible for the killing. It came amid widespread crime in the country following a prison jail-break.
Kadir, on behalf of the local Shia Muslim community had appealed to the security services and then Commissioner of Police Winston Felix to do more in the case of abducted college director, Ibrahim.
Kadir at the time was the head of the Guyana Islamic Information Centre based in Linden.
Ibrahim, 35, then director of the International Islamic College for Advanced Studies (IICAS) was grabbed by two armed men from outside the college’s premises at 42B United Nations Place in what seemed a well-planned mission.
Kadir, who was a close friend of Ibrahim from his years studying Islamic Theology in the Islamic Republic of Iran, had said at the time that the issue was being given prominence in the news in Iran.
Questioned about threats the director may have received, Kadir said at the time that he had never heard of him receiving any in the two years or so he has been living in Guyana.
He said he felt personally responsible for his safety since it was because of their close friendship that Ibrahim had come to this country.
In February, Argentina’s Congress approved an agreement with Iran to set up a “truth commission” to shed light on the cultural centre bombing after years of legal deadlock. But many Argentine Jewish community leaders feared the pact could undermine the ongoing judicial investigation, led by Nisman.
In the case of the AMIA (Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina) centre bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina has secured Interpol arrest warrants for nine men – eight Iranians and one person presumed to be Lebanese. Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi is among the officials sought by Argentina, which is home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community.
Another Iranian with an outstanding arrest warrant against him in the case is Mohsen Rezaie, a former head of the Revolutionary Guards who is running for president.
Reuters said that Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has close ties with other Latin American leaders who are on good terms with Tehran, such as Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa.
Her government had no immediate comment on Nisman’s report, which reinforced concerns voiced by Jewish leaders in Buenos Aires about the Argentine-Iranian commission.
The forming of the commission was seen as a diplomatic win for Iran as it confronts a U.S.-led effort to isolate Tehran because of its nuclear programme, which Western nations fear is aimed at attaining nuclear weapons.