Government creates anti-terrorism database

The government created today the “Public Registry of Pesonas and Entities Linked to Terrorism and it’s Financing,” or (RePET), a tool that will permit Hezbollah’s designation as an extremist group in the country. 

Through the Decree 289/2019, published this Tuesday in the Boletiín Oficial, modified an existing policy from June 2012, and established the creation of the registry. 

Until now Argentina only abided the United Nations Security Council list of terror groups, which does not include the Iran-linked Shiite militant group that blew up the Israeli embassy in 1992 and the headquarters of Jewish-Argentine Mutual Association in 1994. 

The government remarked that RePET will “guarantee the correct identification and individualisation” of terrorist groups. 

The registry will operate within the Justice Ministry and intends to offer access and exchange of information about people, representatives and entities tied to acts of terrorism and its financing, faciliting domestic and international cooperation to prevent, combat and erradicate terrorism and its financing. 

Hezbollah was blamed by the Justice Ministry for the attacks against Israeli diplomats on March 17, 1992, which killed 29 people, and against AMIA on July 18, 1994, which left 85 dead. 

This past Sunday, President Mauricio Macri confirmed during an interview his government intended to “declare Hezbollah as a terrorist group.” 

“We reiterate the rejection of terrorism and whatever organisation that exercises violence in these terms,” the president said. 

The creation of RePET takes place a day before the 25th anniversary of the AMIA bombing. 

The decree, which carries the signature of Macri, Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie and Justice Minister Germán Garavano, states that the determination of terror groups will be controlled by the Security Ministry, the federal police, the Financial Information Unit (UIF) and Directorate of Migration. 

It establishes that the UIF “will notify the data contained in the registry to obligated subjects identified in article 20 of the Law No. 25.246 and its amendments and at the request of its foreign partners.” 

The creation of the RePET will monitor “any person, representative or entity for which there has been a judicial decision by the Ministry of the Public Prosecutor that imputes of admits the formalisation of an investigation” for whatever crime committed with the specific intent to commit an act of terrorism. 

RePET will also include all people or organisations included in the list created by Resolution 1267 (1999) of the UN Security Council, including all subjects and entities where the UIF has ordered the “administrative freezing of financial activities.” 

To prevent potential manipulation of the RePET, the decree establishes that “the registry should contain data that pertains to the reliable identification of people, representatives and entities, their actual producedural situation and the administrative or judicial authority that orders the activity in question.” 

–NA/TIMES