London, Aug 22: A former Iranian Ambassador to Argentina, wanted there in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish Community Centre in which 85 people were killed, was arrested in northern England. Police in Durham, northeast England, yesterday arrested Hade Soleimanpour, 47, at his home there on an extradition warrant, police sources said.
They said the warrant issued yesterday at Bow Street alleges that "on or before" July 18, 1994, Soleimanpour conspired with others to murder persons at the Asociacion Mutua Israelita Argentina - the Jewish Community Centre Amia. The Iranian government has several times denied any responsibility in the Amia attack.
Argentine federal judge Juan Jose Galeano, who is investigating the terrorist attack in which a car bomb killed 85 and wounded more than 200, had requested the arrest of Soleimanpour. Soleimanpour was Iranian Ambassador to Argentina at the time of the explosion. He has been in the United Kingdom since February 2002 on a student visa and was studying at Durham University, police sources said.
In March, Galeano asked Interpol to arrest four Iranian diplomats, accusing them of responsibility for a deadly terrorist attack. On August 13, he added the order of detention of eight more iranian citizens. It was not immediately clear in what countries the other suspects live.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, has rejected allegations of Iranian involvement in the bombing. Bureau Report