Argentine judge in Jewish bomb probe under suspicion

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- An Argentine judge investigating a 1994 Jewish center bombing which killed 86 people is being probed after an aide accused him of destroying evidence to cover up a secret service bungle, lawyers close to the case said on Tuesday.

Claudio Lifchitz, a one-time advisor to Judge Juan Jose Galeano, believes the judge sabotaged his own investigation to help Argentina's secret service cover up the fact it could have prevented the attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA), the lawyers said.

According to the lawyers, Lifchitz said he saw Galeano agree to pay a key suspect $400,000 for him to alter his testimony in the politically-charged investigation which has been harshly criticized for its lack of success by Israel. He also accused the judge of destroying taped evidence and threatening witnesses with making them suspects.

Galeano was not available to comment on the allegations, but one of Argentina's largest Jewish groups says that it does not believe them and that it is satisfied with the judge.

So far Galeano's investigation into the bombing has succeeded only in rounding up about 20 Argentines, including several policemen, suspected of providing the stolen van used in the attack. One of the main suspects is a car thief, Carlos Telleldin, whom Lifchitz said took money from the judge.

Israel suspects Iranian-backed guerrillas, a charge denied in Tehran.

Responding to the accusations against Galeano, Former Justice Minister Ricardo Gil Lavedra ordered an investigation, which has now become a full-fledged criminal probe, about two months ago, court officials confirmed to Reuters, without giving details.

A van packed with at least 220 pounds (100 kg) of the explosive amonal blew up outside the AMIA, Buenos Aires' main Jewish community center, in July 1994, reducing the downtown building to rubble and killing 86 people.

Lifchitz believes the State Intelligence Department (SIDE) had detected the attackers before they acted, but let them slip through its hands, carry out the bombing and then escape.

A lawyer for relatives of victims of the bombing, Alberto Zuppi, told Reuters his clients had registered as plaintiffs in the investigation into Galeano, which he said confirmed suspicions he had long harbored about the judge.

"(Lifchitz) doesn't only say what we've already been saying, but he also supplies evidence," Zuppi said.

But the lawyer said the idea that Galeano's irregular behavior was meant to protect the SIDE was just a theory of Lifchitz's to explain what he had witnessed.

"The reasons why the things that were done were done I don't know. But what I can say is that he (Lifchitz) provides explanations for many things we hadn't been able to understand," Zuppi said.

But one of Argentina's largest Jewish groups, the Delegation of Argentine-Israelite Associations (DAIA), defends Galeano. It has also registered as a plaintiff but only because, under Argentine law, this will allow it to more easily rebut the charges against Galeano.

"This is an attempt to destroy the reputation of the investigation," said DAIA lawyer and vice president Roberto Zaidemberg, "Our evidence is going to totally discredit the frightful accusations by Lifchitz."

The AMIA bombing was the second bloody anti-Jewish attack in Argentina in two years -- after 29 people were killed in the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in 1992.

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