A crew member of the Iranian-Venezuelan cargo plane who is being held in Argentina denied on Monday that the reason for traveling to the country had a hidden intention and asked that they be allowed to continue their work.
The Argentine justice investigates possible links with international terrorism.
“We didn’t come here with any hidden agenda or anything dark. We show all the evidence of our work and of what we came to do. The aircraft was reviewed by the authorities and they did not find anything that caught their attention, “explained Víctor Pérez, general manager of operations of the Venezuelan state company Emtrasur, in statements to Radio with you.
Pérez, who along with the rest of the crew is staying in a hotel in Ezeiza without being able to leave Argentina, but with freedom of movement within the country, requested that “the truth be told” about the case. Also, he warned that this situation can end the operations of the company and with their jobs.
Sin combustible
The plane, a Boeing 747 Dreamliner freighter, was owned by the Iranian company Mahan Air and currently belongs to Emtrasura subsidiary of Conviasa, companies that are sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury.
Presumably to transfer cargo to an automotive company, the aircraft entered Argentina on June 6 from Mexico. Two days later he took off to go to Uruguay to refuel, but landed again at the Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires, because the neighboring country did not allow him to land.
But in Argentina, the oil companies did not load fuel on the plane for fear of sanctions from the United States.
“We do not have a way to assess what caused them not to supply us with fuel, despite having done all the pertinent steps for that. Including having made the respective payments”, said the manager of Emtrasur.
On June 11, it became known that the Argentine government immobilized the plane, and a few days later the judge ordered the passports to be withheld and the crew prevented from leaving the country. As well as seizing the plane to obtain more data and what the flight crew was doing in Buenos Aires.
why iranian
The case is generating strong controversy in Argentina, a country that suffered two terrorist attacks in the 1990s -against the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association and against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires- for which local justice points to the Hezbollah group and members of the then Iranian government.
Pérez assured that at the time of buying the aircraft, in 2021, one of the clauses of the purchase agreement included technical assistance for which the presence of the Iranians as instructors was necessary.
“An aircraft of this size requires that there be a handover or transfer of all the technical parts in relation to that specific aircraft. And that’s where we have that technical assistance with pilots and mechanics, flight engineers to train all our crews,” added the Venezuelan.
And he explained that the Iranian company offered better conditions for the purchase of the plane: “We looked for other options in the market and unfortunately, due to factors that we cannot infer, it was this company that saw fit to make that sale and adapt the aircraft to our requirements.” .
Links to the Quds Force
Last week, judicial sources confirmed to Efe that the pilot, the Iranian Gholamreza Ghasemi, has a suspected link to the Quds Force, a division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, according to a report sent by the FBI to the Argentine justice system.
Regarding Ghasemi, Pérez pointed out that he is the instructor of the captains and first officers and at no time did they notice any type of suspicious attitude in him. “They are very professional people in their work,” he specified.
The manager explained that they began to use the retained plane last February, when the Venezuelan State He bought it to transport medical supplies due to the pandemic of covid-19 and it is the only aircraft with which Emtrasur is operating.
And he clarified that the plane also offers cargo services.