Argentine Justice frees two more crew members of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane detained since June

The Argentine Justice has released two of the crew members of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane held since June at an Argentine airport and has inquired about the remaining three people left in the country.

The decision to release two of the crew members has been ratified this Thursday by Judge Federico Villena, of the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court of Lomas de Zamora 1, establishing that both crew members are “absolved of all guilt, declared innocent” and “dismissed in the judicial cases opened against them”, as reported by Telesur.

“With these two, there are already 14 crew members of the Emtrasur plane absolved of all guilt, declared innocent and, as resolved by Judge Villena, acquitted in the legal cases opened against them”, emphasized the Venezuelan Embassy in Argentina in a statement.

The other three crew members who are still under arrest in Argentina — of which one is the pilot of the plane — have been summoned by the Justice of the country, although they have refused to answer questions.

The crew members, all Iranians, have reportedly presented written statements in which they have made their statements against the accusations of alleged links with terrorism but refused to answer questions, as reported by ‘Clarin’.

The magistrate now has ten days to decide whether to prosecute them or allow them to leave the country.

Last September 14, the Federal Court of Appeals of the Argentine city of La Plata upheld the lifting of the ban on 12 of the 19 occupants of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane from leaving the country, with the condition that they had to make an appearance at the Argentine Embassies in Venezuela OR Iran once a month.

The decision was made in the framework of the case that was initiated after the arrival, last June 6, of a flight of the Emtrasur company at Ezeiza international airport, which led to an investigation on the activities of the crew members of the aircraft, due to the suspicion of alleged links with terrorist activities.