An Argentine judge ordered that the seven Iranians and three Lebanese citizens accused of involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires face trial in absentia for the first time in the long-running case plagued by setbacks and controversy. Past efforts to encourage foreign governments to arrest the suspects on the basis of Interpol red alerts never gained traction. But right-wing President Javier Milei, a loyal ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and fierce critic of Iran pushed a bill through Congress earlier this year that authorizes trials in absentia for fugitives that have long sought to evade justice — allowing Argentina to put the defendants on trial for the first time.
SOURCE: NAHARNET