Argentina will try in absentia ten Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, a ruling seen by AFP on Thursday said.
The attack, which caused devastation in Latin America's biggest Jewish community, has never been claimed or solved, but Argentina and Israel have long suspected Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group of carrying it out at Iran's request.
Until March this year, Argentine law did not allow for trials to be held in absentia.
Judge Daniel Rafecas acknowledged the "exceptional" nature of the decision to send the case to court, over three decades after the bombing and with the suspects all still at large.
Trying them in absentia, he said, allowed to "at least try to uncover the truth and reconstruct what happened."
In April 2024, an Argentine court blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which it called a "crime against humanity," and labeled Iran a "terrorist state."
It found that the attack and another on the Israeli embassy in 1992 that killed 29 people were likely triggered by the Argentine government under then-president Carlos Menem canceling three contracts with Iran for the supply of nuclear equipment and technology.
Tehran has persistently denied any involvement.
