by A group of lawyers representing a foundation that assists victims of crimes against humanity and violations of human rights in different countries presented the first judicial complaint in Argentina against the Palestinian fundamentalist group Hamas whom they ask to be investigated and condemned.
It is based on the principle of universal justice with which the law seeks to judge cross border crimes. And that paradoxically has other antecedents on the international scene such as the one that accused and investigated in Argentina the crimes of the Spanish Franco regime or those of the Argentine dictatorship in other countries.
The complaint was filed by the institution. Victims International and seeks to condemn here the main leaders of the terrorist group – which Israel fights harshly in the Gaza Strip – and every member of said force and another who has participated in the brutal attack on Israeli territory on October 7 in which some 1,200 civilians and another 300 soldiers were killed.
They took about 240 hostages hostage, among whom – the complaint says – 24 citizens of Argentine origin including a baby barely months old, in reference to Kfir Bibas, who turned one year old without his parade or that of his parents or his little brother being known.
They accuse them of “homicide, kidnapping, sexual abuse, serious injuries and torture that they were committed, including, against minors, in clear violation of the law of nations; since those atrocious crimes occurred in the context of an extermination planattack and elimination of the Jewish people deployed by the highest authorities of the Hamas group”.
Wink from Milei
According to what this newspaper could know, Javier Milei, who will travel to Israel on Monday to make a strong gesture of support to one of its main allies in the international sphere, and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, He already has the complaint in his hands and he did positive gestures in that sense. The president and first vice president of the DAIA, Jorge Knoblovits and Marcos Cohen, also have it, whom they asked for support.
A few days ago, the President of the Nation retweeted his friend, the economist Julio Goldestein, who was initially his candidate for ambassador to Israel, and who posted the complaint from Víctimas International: “This great work is going to put the #Arg in its place.” that corresponds, from the right side of history. We will always be on the right side. Thank you @JMilei for waking up the #Argentinosdebien,” wrote Goldestein, who is in Israel waiting for the presidential tour.
Milei is secretly discussing with his ministers whether before his tour – which also includes a meeting with Pope Francis and Georgia Meloni in Rome – Whether or not a decree is made official by which Hamas will be declared part of the list of groups considered terrorists for Argentina, where the Hezbollah militia has been located since 2018.
Although the complaint is a more than interesting legal element for the President’s desire to declare Hamas a terrorist group for Argentina, Some ministers in his Cabinet advised him not to rush for security reasons for a country like Argentina that has already suffered two bloody terrorist attacks against Jewish targets: that of the Israeli Embassy (1992, 29 dead) and that of AMIA (1994, 85 dead).
However, the President and his ministers were informed by Knoblovits that the DAIA will accompany their decision to decree that Hamas is terrorist, a promise that the former candidate for President and former Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, had also made in the electoral campaign.
The complaint was filed by the foundation and fell in Federal Court number 11 of Judge Julián Ercolini and prosecutor Carlos Rivolo intervened. It was presented by the institution foundation Victims International whose representatives are the lawyers Salvatore Tolone Azzariti, Argentine Italian and president of the foundation; his vice president, Marcelo Pena and the lawyer Tomas Guido.
In dialogue with ClarionPeña emphasized the “imperative need for our Federal Justice to enable universal jurisdiction to investigate international crimes out of respect for the principle of the nationality of the victims, as indicated in our National Constitution in its article 118, so our Republic “You can’t be oblivious to it.”
The complaint was mainly filed against the following terrorists and under the following accusations: Khaled Meshaal, director general of the (para)state office of Hamas; Ismael Haniya, prime minister and co-founder of the organization; Mohamed Al-Deif, commander and co-founder of the Ezzedín al-Kassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas; Marwan Issa, commander-in-chief of the Ezzedín al-Kassam Brigades; Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy director of the Hamas state office; Mahmoud Al-Zahar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, co-founder of Hamas and co-founder of the Ezzedin al-Kassam Brigades; Mohammed Sinwar, leader of the “Intelligence Services”; Maher Salah, leader and co-in charge of fundraising and power structure of the organization; Izzat Al-Risheq, spokesperson; Mouhammad Nazal, leader of the Hamas Political Party; Salah Abu Salah, leader and co-fundraiser, and Yahay Sinwar, political chief of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Peña said that the complaint also covers every other person in the parastatal, military, paramilitary and terrorist structure of Hamas used to commit crimes against humanity and genocide that we will explain below.
“The crimes for which we are bringing this action are classified in article 7 of the Rome Statute (by application of articles 2 and 5 of Law 26,200, based on article 75, paragraph 22 of our Magna Carta) and apply to the case the principles of universal jurisdiction and the nationality of the victim contemplated, among others, in article 118 of the National Constitution and in the jurisprudence and prominent doctrine of our country and comparative law,” the letter indicates.
