By Heshmatollah Rahnama 

The gap between AMIA and DAIA

February 3, 2019 - 11:14

TEHRAN - On January 31, the content of the letter AMIA sent to DAIA was disclosed, in which AMIA had requested DAIA hold off on a complaint against Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Former Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and other members of the previous government for signing an agreement with Iran. This was an accord that began after the death of Alberto Nisman, an Argentine lawyer who worked as a federal prosecutor. DAIA intended to move forward with the case in the assembly scheduled in May.

DAIA was prepared to prosecute Fernandez de Kirchner for treason against the homeland. This was an unprecedented case only after another complaint of similar nature filed in Argentina in 1955 against Juan Domingo Peron. Until then it was unheard of that a Jewish organization in a country run a complaint against the incumbent government. Such accusations were made possible through former DAIA and AMIA officials who are currently among government officials (PRO), such as Federal Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich, MP Waldo Wolff, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development Sergio Bergman, Minister for Human Rights and Cultural Pluralism Claudio Avruj, and others.

It is worth noting that DAIA is a non-governmental organization, NGO, linked to Argentinean Jewish institutions, and is a political arm of the Jewish community in Argentina. Jorge Knoblovits, chairman of DAIA, expressed his dissatisfaction with the Clarin newspaper and called AMIA one of the 128 institutions affiliated with DAIA.

The covert case in Iran's memorandum of understanding is severely weakened. |When the trial began, Luis D'Elía, Fernando Esteche, and Jorge Khalil were arrested. Timerman was also under house arrest, and the United States rejected his visa, which delayed her cancer treatment, of which he eventually died. Esteche Fernando is still in prison.

Now, we shall wait and see whether the ex-government officials, who are likely to be acquitted, will file a lawsuit against Jewish institutions.

A letter says, “The continuation of this complaint is harmful to the Jewish community, and in particular, it will affect AMIA management. The letter also acknowledges “Dismissing the lawsuit against Fernández de Kirchner was to compensate for the seriousness of previous management mistakes.”

The letter was sent on January 22, signed by AMIA deputy head Ariel Eichbaum and First Secretary Darío Fernan Curiel. According to a Jewish news agency, the document was not signed by the head of the Jewish community, Agustín Zbar, as he went to Israel with the other authorities to commemorate prosecutor Nisman.

AMIA's request to discard a lawsuit against former Senator and President Fernández de Kirchner, for her signature of a memorandum of understanding with Iran, surprised many leaders and organizations that criticized AMIA for using the AMIA file for their political interest. In their view, the Jewish institutions, political and media powers have used AMIA's case for their own interests.

Following charges brought by the former chairman of the AMIA special investigation department Mario Cimadevilla against Macri and his Minister of Justice Germán Garavano, Jorge Elbaum called for investigations on “all those involved in this fraudulent network.” The investigation began with the suicide of Prosecutor Nisman and the case of "MoU with Iran.”

The letter also refers to an undisclosed trial that has been requested by DAIA and the Mauricio Macri government; it is clear that an undisclosed trial is in favor of the United States and Israel, through which they intend to put pressure on Iran.