The case of Venezuelan plane of Iranian origin delayed at the Ezeiza international airport had a new chapter this Sunday: the five Iranian crew members whose passports were retained by Migration will be able to leave the country, according to the resolution of the federal judge Federico Villenas, who pointed out that none of them have prohibitions to circulate. At the same time, the magistrate decided to open an investigation into the Boeing flight in Argentine territory. As part of the crew, the Iranians have a permit to stay in the country for 15 days, which they can take advantage of or, if they want, leave on a regular flight. Villenas considered legal the retention of the passports made by Migrations, given that the security forces had warned that the flight was suspicious to them. On the other hand, the judge did not get involved with the issue of refueling the plane. The lawyer of the Venezuelan airline emtrasur, Rafael Resnick Brenner, had asked YPF and Shell to do so, but Villenas pointed out that it was not an issue within his competence. At the moment, the ship remains in Ezeiza, unable to fly due to lack of fuel.
The plane, due to its Iranian origin, has a sanction from the US Department of State which raised warning signs. From Tehran, the Mahan Air company clarified that a year ago it sold the plane to the Venezuelan airline and added that the five Iranians who were on board currently work for that company. The airline, with private capital, considered through its spokesman that “the confiscation of the plane was a political move.”
So far it is clear that the crew did not have movement restrictions in force, according to Migration reports. In any case, during this weekend Villenas not only received the request for habeas corpus from the lawyer of the Venezuelan airline Emtrasur -which the judge denied-, but also a brief from the opposition deputies Ricardo López Murphy and Gerardo Milman to investigate the national officials who “let the aircraft in, putting national security at risk.” That writing was turned over to the prosecutor’s office on duty, for its view. The investigation that the judge ordered to open is independent of the presentation of the deputies of JxC.
The Boeing arrived in Ezeiza on Monday, June 6, with a load of auto parts; Her crew was made up of fourteen Venezuelans and five Iranians. Previously, due to bad weather, she had made a stopover in Córdoba. At the international airport, an operation from the Airport Security Police (PSA), Immigration, Customs and the Federal Police reviewed the cargo; According to PSA sources, he did not find anything strange, but the troops withheld the passports of the Iranian crew and imposed it as a condition to leave the country to do so on a scheduled flight. No one was arrested, but the crew stayed in a hotel in Ezeiza. After Villena’s decision, they can request their passports to leave Argentina.
The flight was left under a cloak of suspicion, fueled by the media that feed on information from the United States Embassy. One of the observations made in this regard was that the plane has an arrest warrant from the US Treasury Department. Another, that according to the records seven Iranians traveled, but only five would have landed in Ezeiza. There were also publications that highlighted that the plane would have flown “with the transponder turned off, as if it did not want to be located.” The version released by these sources aimed to install that it would be Iranians linked to the Quds force, a group of the Iranian Republican Guard whose movements are closely followed by US espionage agencies.
The crew’s lawyer, Resnick Brenner, who filed habeas corpus for the withholding of the passports and the restitution of the plane, assured in his claim that the national State acted “illegitimately” by withholding the Iranians’ passports, since none of them had arrest warrants or prohibitions to circulate. He added that, as YPF and Shell refused to supply fuel to the aircraft, it was de facto detained. On Wednesday, the Boeing took off for Uruguay to refuel, but in the neighboring country they did not allow it to enter their airspace. The Uruguayan Defense Minister, Javier García, said that he gave that order because “foreign agencies” gave “information” to the Ministry of the Interior that put him on alert. The ship had to return to Ezeiza.
The AMIA and DAIA claim
The AMIA and the DAIA warned that the Mahan Air company was “sanctioned by the United States for its links to terrorist activities”; For this reason, both organizations of the Jewish community demanded that the Government give “exhaustive and detailed information about the people who were traveling on the plane and the reasons for their passage through the country.” The entities indicated that the attacks of March 17, 1992 against the Embassy of Israel and of July 18, 1994 against the AMIA “which still remain unpunished, were planned and executed by Hezbollah, a terrorist group financed and supported by the Republic Islamic of Iran. “Some of the Iranian defendants, who are currently officials of the government of that country, and who have international arrest warrants, have recently circulated through countries that receive and protect them, circumventing the demands of the local Justice and Interpol,” they added. And they concluded that for this reason, “it is pertinent to require the control agencies in charge to provide, with speed and precision, the required information and the results of the investigation that is being carried out, in the face of an event that aroused suspicion and confusion” .