04/22/2020 - 10:54
- Clarín.com
- Society
A flight with 243 repatriated Argentines arrived in the country in the last hours from Miami with the embalmed body of a 91-year-old man who had died of a coronavirus in New York, but who had not been informed in order to get him onto the plane.
According to reports, the documentation that confirmed that he was infected was not released to the authorities, so there is an open criminal case.
Elías Masri, Argentine, 91 , has lived in the United States since 1988. Amid the coronavirus outbreak in New York, the businessman became infected with Covid-19 and died on April 7 at his Manhattan home.
The victim's family asked that his body be embalmed for religious reasons (his Jewish condition prevented him from being cremated) and began the procedures to bring him to Argentina on a private flight. However, as the death certificate stated that Masri was infected with coronavirus, the request to the National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC) was rejected.
On the last Saturday night, however, the body of the businessman ended up arriving in Argentina. He did it in the hold of an Aerolineas Argentinas plane that arrived from Miami with 243 returnees who had been stranded in the United States in the midst of the pandemic, in a service enabled by the Foreign Ministry.
Elías Masri passed away on April 7 in Manhattan.
According to sources from the Ministry of Health, the coffin carrying Masri's body was hermetically sealed, so they rule out any possible spread of the virus . However, it had not been declared: upon verifying the documentation, the authorities discovered that only a partial certificate had been attached that spoke of "natural death" .
The internal regulations of the airline prohibit the transfer of bodies suspected of having had an infectious contagious disease of any kind.
The sworn declaration of the embalmer of the body of Elías Masri.
According to the information confirmed by Clarín , upon receiving the body, Border Health officials at Ezeiza airport noted that the documentation was not complete. They crossed data and discovered that the private flight had been frustrated precisely because Masri had died of coronavirus.
Amid the controversy, a relative of the deceased businessman appeared at the air terminal asking to remove the embalmed corpse, but they refused and the coffin was isolated.
The death certificate delivered to Aerolineas Argentinas.
Hours later, the Ministry of Health filed a criminal complaint in the federal courts of Lomas de Zamora to determine how the body entered the country. Those responsible are sought under the figure of article 202 of the Penal Code, which punishes with imprisonment of up to 15 years in prison whoever spreads a "dangerous and contagious disease for people".
At the same time, Aerolíneas Argentinas decided to open an internal investigation requesting "reports to find out if there may have been any negligence on the part of employees in the Miami cargo area." Authorities of the company would appear this Wednesday before the Justice to give their version of the events.
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