Interpol asked to probe why Saudis didn't arrest Rafsanjani, aide for terror

Former Iranian president and his assistant were indicted in Argentina as complicit in 1994's AMIA Jewish community center bombing.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
rafsanjani 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
rafsanjani 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center on Thursday urged Interpol, as well as Saudi and Argentinian authorities, to investigate why two Iranians indicted as accomplices to terror were not detained while attending a conference in Saudi Arabia last week. The human rights group had previously called on Interpol to invoke its "red notice" international arrest warrants for the two Iranian officials attending an international Muslim conference on relations with other faiths in Mecca. Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his assistant, Mohsen Rezai, were indicted in Argentina as complicit in 1994's AMIA Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded more than 100. The two Iranians left Saudi Arabia without incident after attending the conference. The Wiesenthal Center also called on moderate Muslim countries to "publicly express their consternation at how a religious initiative was sadly abused," the organization said in a statement. "Accomplices to terror are not interfaith players," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.