Key Witness to 1994 Bombing Extradited to Argentina

Published December 23rd, 2000 - 02:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

A key witness to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish insurance company in Buenos Aires which killed 86 people and injured 300 more has been extradited to Argentina, Swiss judicial sources said Saturday. 

Brasilian Wilson Roberto Dos Santos left Zurich for Buenos Aires late Friday having been arrested at Zurich airport in March at the request of Interpol. 

Argentinean authorities filed an extradition request the following month, after the country's investigators became convinced that Dos Santos had given false evidence. 

They claim he warned the Argentinean consul in Milan, Italy of a pending attack just prior to the 1994 bombing. 

Dos Santos said he had been in contact with his former Iranian wife Nahrim Mokhtari and a Middle East group which took part in a 1992 bombing on the Israeli embassy which claimed 29 lives and was planning an attack against another Jewish target in Buenos Aires. 

He later withdrew the statement. 

Swiss officials approved the extradition request in September after receiving guarantees from Buenos Aires that Dos Santos's human rights would be respected in his trial. 

Switzerland's highest court turned down an appeal against his extradition on December 8.  

Mokhtari was arrested by anti-terrorist police in Argentina in 1998 -- BERN (AFP)  

 

 

© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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