前阿根廷总统梅内姆受审

Former Argentine President Carlos Menem and 12 other people are going on trial Thursday for allegedly conspiring to derail the investigation into the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center.

Prosecutors allege that Mr. Menem and his co-defendants, including his former intelligence chief and a former federal judge, tried to steer prosecutors from linking the bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association building to a Syrian-born man, Alberto Kanoore Edul, who was suspected of taking part in the attack.

The 85-year-old Menem, who became Argentine president in 1989 and served a decade, is of Syrian descent. Currently serving as a senator in the Argentine legislature, Mr. Menem has denied the charges.

No one has ever been arrested or tried for the July 18, 1994 attack in the capital, Buenos Aires, which left 85 people dead.