Sebastian Basu's request to a federal judge to issue a national and international arrest warrant for Ali Khamenei

Argentine prosecutor Sebastian Basso asked a federal judge to issue a national and international arrest warrant for Ali Khamenei.

The Guardian newspaper published a report based on Prosecutor Basu's letter regarding the AMIA case, writing: "The Leader of the Islamic Republic directed the decision to bomb Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, and issued a fatwa to implement it."

The explosion, caused by a van carrying explosives next to the AMIA building, reduced the seven-story Jewish community center in Buenos Aires to rubble, killing 85 people and injuring about 300. Many of those killed and injured in the incident, which was the deadliest in the country's history, were non-Jewish Argentine citizens.

According to the argument of Argentine Attorney General Sebastian Basu, Ali Khamenei supported the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist group and personally appointed its secretary general as his representative in Lebanon. He also accused several current and former high-ranking Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah officials of involvement in the bombing, as well as in the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Argentina that killed 22 people.

Referring to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, Prosecutor Basu said: "Everything in Iran, whether it concerns foreign policy or the use of force, depends on the decision of Ali Khamenei. The Iranian Constitution, in Article 110, stipulates that the leadership has the responsibility and authority to determine the country's general policies, oversee the proper implementation of those policies, issue referendum votes, and grant pardons or commutations of sentences."

The Leader of the Islamic Republic is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and controls military intelligence and security operations, as well as having the authority to declare war or peace and mobilize the armed forces. Khamenei is not immune from crimes with terrorist characteristics and against humanity.”

Now, Attorney General Basu has asked a federal judge to issue a national and international arrest warrant for Ali Khamenei on charges of involvement in the bombing of the Amiya Jewish Center.

The previous prosecutor in the case, Alberto Nisman, was assassinated in 2015 before testifying before the Argentine Congress about the Argentine government’s cover-up of Iran’s involvement in the AMIA attack; he was then replaced by Sebastian Basso. The New York Times reported at the time that Alberto had prepared an arrest warrant for then-Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, accusing her of colluding with Iranian officials to cover up Tehran’s involvement in the blast.

In 2007, Interpol issued international arrest warrants for Mohsen Rabbani and Ahmad Reza Asghari, who were senior members of the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires at the time and were also accused of providing field assistance, at the request of Argentine legal institutions, and for Ali Akbar Velayati, Mohsen Rezaei, Ahmad Vahidi, and Ali Fallahian. These arrest warrants are still valid.

Argentine President Javier Milio also called the Iranian government a terrorist organization in July of last year, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the AMIA bombing, and promised to end decades of inaction and failure to pursue investigations into the attack.