Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

On April 9, 2025, more than 30 years after the bombing of the Jewish Community Center, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the lead prosecutor in the case is calling for the arrest of the ultimate decision-maker of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Sebastian Basso has, according to the media, requested an arrest warrant against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's de facto ruler, for his direct involvement in the bombing. A federal judge is reportedly planning to hold a trial in absentia, which is made possible by a new law passed by Argentina’s Congress.

                  
              Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic since 1989

On July 18, 1994, a van loaded with 275 kilograms of explosives was detonated at the AMIA headquarters. The explosion killed 85 civilians and injured 151 others, making it the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust. The targeting of AMIA was not a random act of terrorism but a calculated, state-sponsored crime against humanity.

Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) after the 1994 bombing

Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC) investigated and reported on this attack, which it qualified as a crime against humanity, over 15 years ago. "An arrest warrant against the Islamic Republic's top decision-maker for playing the determining role in the deadly attack against AMIA is long overdue," said the Boroumand Center's Executive Director, Roya Boroumand. 

Evidence collected over the years—including by Argentine prosecutors, international investigators, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights—points directly to the highest echelons of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A secret meeting in August 1993 in the Iranian city of Mashhad, attended by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, and Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, set the AMIA attack in motion. According to credible intelligence and testimony, this operation was conceived as retaliation for Argentina’s decision to suspend nuclear cooperation with Iran, as well as part of Iran’s broader campaign of international violence.

The operation was carried out by Hezbollah, with logistical and operational support from Iranian intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards. Iranian diplomat Mohsen Rabbani played a critical coordinating role on the ground in Argentina, where he resided for several years after Iran purchased land to build a mosque in 1983. Hezbollah operative Ibrahim Berro drove the explosives-laden van into the AMIA building, killing himself and dozens of others in the attack.

Despite significant political interference, the Argentine judicial system has persistently worked to uncover the truth. Former prosecutor Alberto Nisman led a reinvigorated investigation that ultimately persuaded INTERPOL to issue arrest warrants in 2007 for key Iranian officials. Khamenei was identified as the principal actor in the 2006 indictments by late prosecutor Alberto Nisman, but no arrest warrant had been issued against him, due in part to perceived head-of-state immunity. 

Prosecutor Basso rejects that interpretation in the AMIA bombing case. In addition, Basso has requested that other suspects in the bombing be tried in absentia, including Ali Fallahijan, Ali Akbar Velayati, Mohsen Rezai, Ahmad Vahidi, Hadi Soleimanpour, Mohsen Rabbani, Ahmad Reza Asghari, Salman Raouf Salman, Abdallah Salman, and Hussein Mounir Mouzannar.

The AMIA bombing meets all the legal criteria for a crime against humanity under international law, as established in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: murder has been committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population with knowledge and authorization by senior officials of the attack. 

Head of state immunity does not apply in such cases. This principle was established as early as the Nuremberg Trials and reaffirmed in the cases of Slobodan Milošević (Yugoslavia), Charles Taylor (Liberia), and Omar al-Bashir (Sudan). Crimes against humanity are not official acts of state—they are violations of peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens). As such, they are prosecutable regardless of the perpetrator’s office or nationality.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s role as Supreme Leader places him at the apex of the decision-making structure that authorized and facilitated the AMIA bombing. His accountability cannot be shielded by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Given the Islamic Republic’s record of politically-directed violence against anyone who either challenges or stands in its way, the AMIA bombing was clearly a crime against humanity. In targeting innocent civilians abroad with mass violence, the leadership of the Islamic Republic has shown that its consistent and utter disregard for international human rights law is not limited to Iran and knows no borders.

The Argentine prosecutor’s decision to seek an arrest warrant for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is consistent with international legal standards and rooted in compelling factual and legal evidence. "In pursuing this action against Iran's Supreme Leader, and other officials involved in the crime" said Roya Boroumand, "Argentina is standing not only for justice for the AMIA victims but also for the principle that no one—not even a head of state—is above the law when it comes to crimes against humanity."