Argentinian justice authorized Tuesday, September 14 the exit of the country of the majority of the crew of a Venezuelan cargo plane, detained for three months and at the heart of an international imbroglio, while the authorities were investigating a possible link with the Iranian Al-Quds organization.
An appeal chamber of the La Plata court upheld the August first instance decision, which had lifted the ban on leaving the territory weighing on 12 of the 19 crew members, 11 Venezuelans and an Iranian.
The prosecution had appealed.
The appeal decision can still be appealed to the Provincial Supreme Court.
Seven crew members, four Iranians and three Venezuelans, are still prohibited from leaving Argentina, although they are free to come and go.
But in an apparent injunction to expedite the case, the La Plata Court of Appeal gave the judge a ten-day deadline to
"conclude the pending proceedings, define the procedural situations and the restrictions on people and property"
, according to the decision reported by the official Telam agency.
“Propaganda Operation”
The Venezuelan 747 freighter of Emstrasur, a subsidiary of the public company Conviasa targeted by American sanctions, had been immobilized since the beginning of June in Argentina, where it had arrived from Mexico, transporting auto parts.
Its crew members had been banned from leaving the country, while justice is investigating their profile, including a possible link with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards of Iran, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States.
The crew had since been living in a hotel near the Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires.
Telephones, computers, tablets, had been seized during a search at the hotel.
The plane previously belonged to the Iranian company Mahan Air, before being sold more than a year ago according to Tehran.
Washington accuses Mahan of material support for Al-Quds, an elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards.
In August the United States asked Argentina to seize the Boeing - which was done - arguing that it had been sold in 2021 to the Venezuelan company by an Iranian company in violation of the sanctions against the two entities.
Caracas had protested against the immobilization of the aircraft, and had demanded, like Tehran, the immediate lifting of the ban on leaving Argentina for the crew.
Iran assured that the status of the plane is
"completely legal"
and that its immobilization is a
"propaganda operation"
linked to tensions between the West and Iran over its nuclear program.