Argentina’s Senate approves one-time compensation to AMIA bombing victims

Marcy Oster

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — Argentina’s Senate unanimously approved a bill that would offer a one-time compensation to the estates of the 85 people killed and to those who suffered major injuries in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center.

According to the bill, approved Wednesday without debate, the compensation for the relatives of those killed in the 1994 bombing will be about $170 000 for each victim. For the hundreds whose injuries were “extremely grievous,” the reparation is reduced to 70 percent of that amount, and those with “grievous” injuries will receive 60 percent of that amount.

The bill will now pass to the Parliament’s Lower Chamber. If it is approved there, it will become law.

In June 2011, Argentina’s Parliament unanimously ruled that the relatives of victims of the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires would receive compensation from the state.

Under that law, the families received $225,000 in the case of death, and $158,000 for dramatic and severe injuries, for a total of $40 million from the Argentine government.

The perpetrators of both crimes have never been caught.