Wiesenthal Centre Urges INTERPOL, Argentine and Saudi Authorities to Investigate Non-Detention of Indicted Accomplices to Terror

Last week, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre had called on INTERPOL to invoke its "red notice" international arrest warrants "for the detention of two Iranian officials present at an international Muslim conference on relations with other faiths, being held in Mecca."

Former President Rafsanjani and his assistant, Mohsen Rezai, had been indicted by Argentina as complicit in the AMIA bombing of 1994 in Buenos Aires, that cost 85 lives and over 100 maimed. The Argentine Foreign Office was to request prompt capture and extradition.

The official Saudi Press Agency yesterday reported that the two left the Kingdom after participating in an International Islamic Dialogue Conference.

The Centre has urged INTERPOL, Argentina and Saudi Arabia to investigate the circumstances as to how this opportunity for justice came and went.

As a protagonist in interfaith cooperation, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre calls on its friends in the Muslim world to publicly express their consternation at how a potentially breakthrough religious initiative was sadly abused.

"Accomplices to terror are not interfaith players", stated the Centre, adding "Had such INTERPOL red notices been devalued in the case of Nazi war criminals identified by the late Simon Wiesenthal, there would have been a world outcry."

For further information, please contact Avra Shapiro at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre at +1-310-772-2458 (direct) or +1-310-553-9036.