ARGENTINA: AMIA PROSECUTOR DESCRIBES IMPENDING

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 001420

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/15/2018
TAGS: PTER KJUS PGOV PREL EFIN IR AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: AMIA PROSECUTOR DESCRIBES IMPENDING
CIVIL ACTION AGAINST IRANIANS AND HIZBALLAH

REF: BUENOS AIRES 739 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: Ambassador E. Anthony Wayne for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: Alberto Nisman, Argentina's Special
Prosecutor to investigate the 1994 terrorist attack against
the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA),called on
the Ambassador October 14, 2008 to provide advance notice of
what he said would be the first civil action to be advanced
against eight Iranian suspects in the attack, as well as the
Government of Iran and the group Hizballah in Lebanon. The
plaintiff was a shopowner who had sustained injuries and had
his business destroyed in the blast at the adjacent AMIA
center. He would seek damages from the named Iranian
defendants, the Government of Iran, and Hizballah, and Nisman
on October 15 would publicly request that the judge issue a
preliminary order asking that financial assets of the accused
individuals and of Hizballah be frozen pending the outcome of
the trial (something legally justifiable due to the
preponderant evidence of guilt, Nisman said). Nisman said
the judge could not issue a similar request for the
attachment of Iranian government assets until a verdict was
issued. Nisman went forward publicly the afternoon of
October 15 with a request to a federal judge to request the
seizure of USD 1 million from each of the individuals and
from Hizballah prior to the suit's outcome. End Summary.


2. (C) Alberto Nisman called on the Ambassador at his request
October 14, 2008 to provide advance notice of an imminent
civil case to be filed by a survivor of the 1994 AMIA blast.
The Embassy's DOJ Senior Trial Attorney and Poloff
participated in the meeting. Nisman said his office had been
supportive of the decision by the plaintiff's attorney to
file for damages against eight Iranian individuals, against
Hizballah in Lebanon, and against the Government of Iran.


3. (C) Nisman said that the plaintiff was an Argentine
shopowner who had sustained injuries and suffered significant
business losses when the AMIA blast also hit his nearby shop.
Nisman's office was facilitating the claim that seeks that
the presiding judge issue a preliminary order freezing assets
of eight Iranians and of Hizballah. Nisman said that he had
no expectation that the Governments of Lebanon or of Iran
would take action on the judge's request, but he thought it
would attract useful attention and create some added public
pressure on Iran and Hizballah. He said that the Argentine
Foreign Ministry had had no role in the process but would be
expected to transmit the Argentine judicial requests to
Lebanon and Iran. Nisman also suggested that Iranian
commercial transactions with Argentina, including commodities
purchases, may be complicated by initiation of the process,
though he did not explain how this might occur.


4. (C) As Nisman speculated about Iran's reaction, the
Ambassador described the possible precedent of settlements
such as the one reached by Libya in cases brought by family
members of terrorism victims in which the Government of Libya
had made cash payments to the family members without
admitting guilt.


5. (C) Senior DOJ Trial Attorney asked Nisman whether other
victims would likely join the civil suit and whether
Argentine law permits class-action procedures. Nisman said
that class-action suits were possible and that others might
well take similar actions. Nonetheless, he said, many
victims and family members feared retribution, including
violence, if they were named individually in legal actions of
this type.


6. (C) Ambassador utilized the meeting to ask Nisman for a
status report on the criminal charges he announced in May
2008 against former President Menem and other officials for
allegedly obstructing the initial AMIA investigation and
protecting the "local connection" involved in the attack
(reftel). Nisman said that to this point the presiding judge
had focused on document and procedural inquiries, but that he
hoped that the process would move forward. Nisman also says
he continues to work on the Triple Frontier connections to
the attack but without major advances so far.


7. (U) According to press reports, on October 15 Nisman went
public with his request that Federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba
Corral consider freezing assets of the total amount being
claimed by the survivor, or USD 1 million for each of the
eight named Iranian individuals as well as Hizballah in
Lebanon. This was based on Nisman's interpretation that the

civil claim was "legally plausible and that there was a
danger in delay." The unnamed plaintiff's claim, put forward
by attorney Pablo Jacoby, alleges that the 1994 attack was
"structurally supported by the Iranian state as well as by
the Lebanese organization Hizballah in its organization,
financing and implementation." Jacoby is associated with one
of the survivors' groups, "Active Memory". Another group,
the Families and Friends of the Victims of the AMIA Attack,
voiced support for Nisman's effort. Nisman also called for
international pressure on Lebanon to embargo Hizballah's bank
accounts and assets.
WAYNE