Natalia Iocco
04/22/2020 - 15:51
- Clarín.com
- Society
The businessman died in his apartment at 47 St, in Manhattan. According to the obituary he published in The New York Times, he was there on April 7, when he died of respiratory failure caused by coronavirus. Elías Masri was 91 years old and had been in the real estate business for decades.
Due to his religion, the family did not want Masri's body to be cremated, one of the recommendations for victims of the virus that threatens the world. So they decided to embalm him. "His remains will rest in Argentina," closed the obituary published in the same newspaper days later.
That trip ended in controversy when Masri's last wish led to a legal case investigating the actions of the Argentine Consulate in New York, the offices of Aerolineas Argentinas in Miami and the man's family in the United States and in Buenos Aires.
Elías Masri migrated in 1988. He had studied Law at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral but fully entered the real estate market in 1950. He bought properties, renovated commercial or residential buildings and returned to sell or rent them.
That business became Falcon Properties, a New York-based company with offices on 5th Avenue and now run by his daughter, Florencia Masri.
It was she who made the documents and certificates to prepare the body and transfer it. Among the documentation presented was a notification from the Consulate of the Argentine Republic in New York, to be exhibited in turn at the Border Health Office.
Elías Masri was 91 years old and died of coronavirus in the United States.
The investigators' first question is how the body was transferred from NY to Miami , from where an Aerolineas Argentinas flight departed with 243 returnees. In the hold, Masri's embalmed body landed in Ezeiza on Saturday at midnight.
Before that happened, a private flight company (Baires Fly) had already sent the documentation to Border Health to request authorization from ANAC to bring a body from the United States. He was rejected as soon as they noticed that the reason for death was COVID-19.
"When they unloaded the body of the plane and reviewed the documentation they realized that it was the same case. In the regulation, the reason for the death was not listed , they only referred to 'natural causes'"; sources of the investigation explained to Clarín . When contrasting it with the days received to consult for the transfer permit, "they noted that they were the same permits but without the certificate indicating that it was a death from an infectious contagious disease."
The sworn declaration of the embalmer of the body of Elías Masri.
This requirement not only responds to the pandemic but also "was always necessary to repatriate any body" and responds to sanitary precautions of international regulations.
Upon detecting the situation, the Border Health authorities informed the National Ministry of Health. From there they determined the protocol to protect the body in a warehouse in Ezeiza and made the criminal complaint in the Federal Court of Lomas de Zamora.
The alternatives, clarify the investigators, are two: that it is negligence on the part of the employees of the offices of the airline in Miami where they did not detect the lack of this documentation; or that they have committed a crime by omitting it. That, and the participation of the Masri family , is what the Federal Prosecutor's Office, in charge of Cecilia Incardon, and the Court, in charge of Federico Villena, are investigating at this time.
This Wednesday, Border Health employees declared that they detected the inconsistency and the lack of documentation. And the next step will be to incorporate the documentation that certifies Masri's death from coronavirus.
Death certificate delivered to Aerolineas Argentinas.
From Aerolíneas Argentinas, for their part, they told Clarín that "the company's internal regulations prohibit the transfer of bodies suspected of having had an infectious contagious disease of any kind. In this case, the company was not informed of the true reasons for the death "
"Although in principle the Miami branch staff acted in good faith and in compliance with the established procedures, we began the corresponding administrative investigations in order to rule out any responsibility on the part of our staff," they indicated before consulting this newspaper.
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.
Until the judge indicates otherwise, the body remains in a sector of the airport. Masri had a daughter and six grandchildren in the United States. And two brothers and several nephews. It was one of them who approached to claim the body and was met with the refusal of the health authorities.
Once the documentation is collected, the investigators will take a statement from the employees who perform functions in Miami and from Consulate personnel. The relatives could also be summoned to testify, if it was found that they paid some kind of bribery to get the transfer knowing that it was not allowed.
In addition to the crime of non-compliance with the duties of a public official or the maneuver to commit the crime, the authorities could charge those responsible for the violation of article 202 of the Penal Code, which punishes anyone who spreads a "dangerous and contagious disease for people ”, which includes sentences of up to 15 years in prison.
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