Swiss agree to give Argentina 1994 bombing suspect

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- Switzerland has approved Argentina's extradition request for a man wanted in connection with the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, the Argentine Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Wilson Dos Santos, a Brazilian, was detained in Zurich in March on an international capture order for false testimony about the car bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center in July 1994, which killed 86 people and wounded about 200.

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The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Dos Santos would have 30 days to appeal the extradition before Switzerland's Federal Tribunal.

"It could be a while before he gets to (Argentina)," a ministry spokeswoman said.

Dos Santos presented himself at Argentine, Israeli and Brazilian consulates in Italy in the weeks before the bombing and told skeptical officials that an anti-Jewish attack was being planned in Argentina. He said he had been told about it by his Iranian girlfriend.

But he later said he had made the story up and had predicted the bombing by chance.

Two years before the attack on the community center, the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 29 people.

Argentina, Israel and the United States have all said they suspect Middle East guerrillas backed by Iran were behind the attacks. Tehran rejects the charges.

No one has been jailed for the embassy bombing, but several men, including some former policemen, have been arrested on suspicion of aiding the AMIA center attackers.

Argentina's 300,000-strong Jewish community is the largest in Latin American and the seventh-largest in the world.

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