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They investigate five Iranian crew members of a Venezuelan plane that was stranded in Argentina

2022-06-14T22:27:00.811Z


A judge ordered the passports of the Iranian crew members to be withheld for 72 hours while investigations into their identities continue, to establish whether there is any link to terrorist organizations. 


This is the panorama of the crew of the Venezuelan plane in Argentina 2:54

(CNN Spanish) --

The Argentine Justice is investigating the entry into the country of a Venezuelan-flagged plane and five Iranian citizens that make up its crew, according to documents accessed by CNN.

Federal judge Federico Villena ordered this Monday to retain the passports of the crew members for 72 hours while he advances with the investigations into their identities, to establish if there is any link with terrorist organizations.

He also ordered a raid on the hotel where they are staying in Buenos Aires to seize documents and electronic devices, spokesmen for the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) reported.

The magistrate decided this after a presentation by the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), which requested to investigate whether those named belong to the Al-Quds forces, described as a terrorist group by the United States.

Argentina has not included this organization in its list of suspected terrorists.

The brigade belongs to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces.

Several high-ranking former officials of that country are accused in Argentina of having ordered the attack on the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) in 1994, the worst terrorist attack in the country's history.

Argentine Security Minister Aníbal Fernández said in a radio interview with the medium Perfil that one of the five Iranian citizens temporarily prohibited from leaving the country is the namesake of a member of Al-Quds.

The official maintained that the authorities allowed the entry of the 19 crew members (five Iranians and 14 Venezuelans) because there were no alerts or restrictions on any of them.

CNN has not yet been able to contact the crew's new attorneys.

The Boeing 747 Dreamliner, Venezuelan registration YV3531, has been at the Ezeiza International Airport, in the province of Buenos Aires, since June 8.

It belongs to the Venezuelan public company Emtrasur and was recently acquired from the Iranian airline Mahan Air, Aníbal Fernández told Perfil.

The plane was sold to a Venezuelan company a year ago, Amir Hossein Zol-Anvari, manager of the Mahan Public Relations Office, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

"The detention of the plane whose ownership was transferred a year ago is due to political objectives - he added - and the crew has been working for the Venezuelan company and the issue has nothing to do with Mahan Air."

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CNN contacted the Iranian Embassy in Argentina and the Government of Venezuela for their reaction to this case, but there has been no response yet.

Nor did the Emtrasur company, the current owner of the plane, respond to the queries.

"The last few weeks are full of propaganda, psychological operations, war of words to provoke a feeling of insecurity (in Iran) and this case is part of it," the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said at his weekly press conference. Said Khatibzadeh, reports the France Press agency.

Mahan Air was sanctioned by US authorities for its ties to Iran and the Venezuelan government, according to a 2020 US Treasury Department statement. Those companies and individuals that collaborate with the airline are also subject to possible sanctions from that country.

Conviasa had also been sanctioned in February 2020 for transporting "corrupt officials" from the "illegitimate Maduro regime," according to then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

These accusations were rejected on several occasions by the Venezuelan government.

“The Iranian regime uses Mahan Air as a tool to spread its destabilizing agenda around the world, including the corrupt regimes in Syria and Venezuela, as well as terrorist groups throughout the Middle East,” Mnuchin said in August 2020.

"The United States will continue to take action against those who support this airline," he added then.

air journey

The cargo plane is operated by the Venezuelan state-owned company Emtrasur.

He landed in Argentina on June 6 from Mexico, after a stopover in Caracas, according to a document provided to the court by the state-owned Argentine Air Navigation Company (EANA).

The aircraft was to enter with auto parts from the Mexican city of Querétaro, acquired by the private Argentine company SAS Automotriz SA, supplier of the Volkswagen automaker.

Both SAS Automotriz SA and Volskswagen did not know of any connection with the contracting of the plane.

Volkswagen reported that it ordered the auto parts from SAS Automotriz, while the supplier said in another statement that "the contract was made for the transport of components destined for the production of instrument panels and seats for the Taos model", but clarified that it does not know which is the relationship between the freight forwarder and the airline.

The contracted freight forwarder, he reported, was Fracht.

In a third statement, Fracht said: "With the sole intention of moving air cargo from Mexico for its client, Fracht hired the company Aerocharter Mexico, which assumed full responsibility for this flight."

CNN is trying to contact Aerocharter México and is awaiting a response on the details of this air operation.

The initial destination of the plane in Argentina was the Ezeiza International Airport, in the province of Buenos Aires, but due to the intense fog that Monday, June 6, the aircraft had to be diverted to land at the Córdoba airport, in the center of the country, according to the file.

Hours later, he was able to resume flight to Ezeiza, where he finally landed.

The next day, the Emtrasur plane presented its flight plan back to the Maiquetía international airport, which serves Caracas, but the flight was delayed and had to request two extensions.

That Tuesday, the 7th, it failed to take off, although the authorities did not inform the court of the reason.

On Wednesday the 8th, he presented a new flight plan to the airport in Montevideo, Uruguay.

He took off, but when the Uruguayan authorities received notification of the plane's entry into their airspace, they denied him permission to land and he had to return to Buenos Aires.

Crew

The judicial file originated from a presentation of habeas corpus.

On behalf of the 19 members of the crew (14 Venezuelans and five Iranians), the Argentine lawyer Rafael Resnick Brenner denounced that during the last week the Argentine authorities withheld their passports and granted them a temporary stay with the "pretext of defining the situation of the aircraft”, according to the letter of the lawyer.

In addition, as reported to the judge, they were told that they could only leave the country by airliner, having to leave the Venezuelan registration aircraft YV3531 “abandoned”.

According to the lawyer and with documents delivered by control agencies to the court and to which CNN accessed, the plane "was subjected to an exhaustive control" by the Airport Security Police (PSA) and the General Directorate of Customs (DGA). ).

The National Directorate of Migration (DNM) and the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) also intervened.

The authorities maintained that the transported cargo had no irregularities and allowed it to enter the country.

The plane was checked again after its re-entry to Argentina, when it was stranded.

The companies in charge of supplying fuel to the airport refused to supply the plane, considering that by collaborating with the requirement of the aircraft they could be targeted by US sanctions, according to the file.

The Argentine judge ordered this Monday to withhold the passports of the five Iranians who entered as members of the crew.

The decision arose from a presentation by the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), which, after news reports about the case, asked the magistrate to prevent the crew members from leaving the country and investigate whether the Iranian citizens are linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran, accused of ordering the terrorist attack on the Jewish mutual society AMIA in 1994. Iran has always denied having participated in the attack.

In the afternoon, the federal prosecutor Cecilia Incardona opened an investigation into the case and asked the judge to order the summary secrecy, a measure approved by the magistrate.

Antecedent

On May 13, the same Emtrasur plane landed at the Guaraní Airport, in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, informed the Minister of the Interior of that country, Federico González, on ABC Color radio.

The crew was made up of 18 people (six Iranians and 12 Venezuelans).

According to the Paraguayan official, some of their names coincide with those of the crew members who entered Argentina.

The Iranians who had entered Paraguay would be "members of the Al-Quds unit, which is part of Iran's (Islamic) Revolutionary Guard," the official said.

The information was provided to Paraguay "by a foreign intelligence service," said the Minister of the Interior, without specifying which country it came from, although he later hinted that it would be the United States.

On that occasion, the aircraft remained in that country over the weekend, until May 16.

Ciudad del Este is located on the Triple Frontier between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, an area investigated for decades for the presence of groups linked to drug trafficking and the financing of international terrorism.

From there, the plane "departed for Aruba with a shipment of cigarettes," the official said.

"The 18 crew members were staying in the same hotel" and "departed on that date on the plane," he added.

When the Emtrasur plane tried to return to Paraguay, the authorities of that country prohibited it from flying over and landing on two occasions, González explained.

The last time was June 8, the same day as Uruguay's ban on landing in its territory, the official added.

"The Paraguayan Intelligence Service was the one that alerted the other intelligence services in the region about the situation of that aircraft and the company that was sanctioned by the United States Treasury," said González.

The official did not specify the date he alerted Argentina.

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-06-14

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