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ArgentineThe rest of the crew of the Venezuelan plane will leave the country
The last five crew members of the cargo plane immobilized since June in Buenos Aires have just been authorized to leave Argentine territory. They were under investigation for a possible link with the Iranian organization Al-Quds.
The Venezuelan 747 freighter of Emtrasur, a subsidiary of Conviasa targeted by American sanctions, had been immobilized since the beginning of June in Argentina.
AFP
Argentinian justice has authorized the exit from the country of the last five crew members, Iranian and Venezuelan, of a cargo plane held for four months in Buenos Aires, as part of an investigation into a possible link with the organization Iranian Al-Quds, according to an order quoted in the press on Saturday.
Three Iranians had been heard at the end of September as part of this investigation, and had denied any link with a terrorist organization. Two Venezuelan members of the crew, also detained in Argentina, were also heard. All had appeared free.
On Friday, Judge Federico Villena, who had been pressed by an appeal court to hasten a decision given the slowness of the procedure, considered that there was no reason to prosecute the members of crew and lifted their ban on leaving the territory, which should be notified to them on Monday. “When the elements of the investigation do not make it possible to establish an indictment, and, at the same time, do not authorize the exclusion of the existence of the act, its criminal character or the responsibility of the accused (…) the judge must order the lack of merit” of the proceedings, the judge said in his order quoted by the official Telam agency.
14 crew members had already been able to return home
Fourteen other crew members – 12 Iranians and two Venezuelans – had already been dismissed and were allowed to return home in mid-September. The Venezuelan 747 freighter of Emtrasur, a subsidiary of Conviasa targeted by American sanctions, had been immobilized since the beginning of June in Argentina, where it had arrived from Mexico, transporting auto parts. His crew had been banned from leaving Argentina, while justice investigated their profile, including a possible link with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards of Iran and its Al-Quds unit, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States. United.
A doubt related in particular to the pilot, Gholmareza Ghasemi, and his current or past links with Al-Quds. The Argentine security minister had ruled out any link in this sense, but an intelligence minister from neighboring Paraguay – through which the plane had passed – had on the contrary assured that there was a link, citing “agencies (of intelligence) allies”. The plane previously belonged to Iranian Mahan Air, which Washington accuses of supporting Al-Quds. Caracas and Tehran had protested and demanded that the crew be allowed to leave Argentina. Iran assured that the plane was “completely legal” and that the case was a “propaganda operation” linked to tensions between the West and Iran on nuclear power.
(AFP)