BUENOS AIRES, Sept 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An Argentine appeals court on Tuesday authorized 12 crew members from a Venezuelan plane grounded in Buenos Aires since June, a case that also involves the United States and Iran, to leave the country.
The Boeing 747 cargo plane, owned by Venezuelan company Emtrasur, has been held in Argentina since it arrived on June 8 from Mexico with a shipment of auto parts, after having tried unsuccessfully to enter Uruguay.
A judge ordered the plane be detained in light of an investigation into the crew of 14 Venezuelans and five Iranians.
Last month, a judge gave the green light for 11 Venezuelans and one Iranian to leave Argentina.
The appeals court in La Plata confirmed that decision Tuesday, although it can still be appealed to the Supreme Court in Buenos Aires province.
The ban on leaving the country remains in place for the other seven crew members.
The Paraguayan intelligence service has linked one of the Iranian crew members to the Al Quds Force, a group of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards classified as a terrorist organization by the United States.
The plane first entered Argentina on June 6 from Mexico but, unable to refuel in Buenos Aires due to US sanctions on Venezuela, it left for Montevideo on June 8. But the Uruguayan authorities refused it access, and it flew back to Argentina.
An Argentine judge then granted a request from the United States to seize the plane on the basis that laws were broken when Iran — also under US sanctions — sold it to Venezuela.
Before traveling to Argentina, the plane had been in Paraguay in mid-May after a trip to the island of Aruba with a cargo of cigarettes. — NNN-AGENCIES
