Venezuela receives the last crew members of the Emtrasur plane held in Argentina

These five crew members were the last of a list of 19 people who entered Argentina on June 6 on the Boeing 747-300 aircraft with registration number YV3531 and remained at the Ezeiza international airport (near Buenos Aires).

The last five crew members of the Venezuelan-Iranian Emtrasur plane held in Argentina arrived in Venezuela on Friday, October 21, after four months in Buenos Aires, under investigation for possible links with international terrorism.

Those released, three Iranians and two Venezuelans, who join the first 14 crew members released in September, were received by the Minister of Transport, Ramón Velásquez, and the Iranian ambassador to the country, Hojjatollah Soltani.

#21Oct Thanks to the driver of victories, our President @NicolasMaduro we achieved the release of the 19 Emtrasur crew members that we had kidnapped by the Argentine judiciary pic.twitter.com/VP5qsYkqJE

– Ramón Celestino Velásquez Araguayán (@rvaraguayan) October 22, 2022

Velásquez affirmed that this is a “victory” for both Venezuela and Iran, by achieving the freedom of the 19 crew members. “In this first stage, we dedicate ourselves to the 19 crew members, we have them here and we are celebrating. Now the plane is coming and soon we are more than sure that, with strategic patience, with the guidelines established by President Nicolás Maduro, sooner rather than later we will also have the plane back to Venezuela, “he assured.

The first dozen released arrived in Venezuela on September 16 and two more on the 30th, amid requests for the rest to leave Argentina.

These five crew members were the last of a list of 19 people —five Iranians and 14 Venezuelans— who entered Argentina on June 6 on the Boeing 747-300 aircraft with registration number YV3531, and remained at the Ezeiza international airport ( near Buenos Aires). The aircraft, which belonged to the Iranian airline Mahan Air, was retained and later seized after a request from the United States Department of Justice, which argued that the sanctions prevented negotiating its transfer between Iran and Venezuela.

On the other hand, the Argentine justice stated that there were doubts that the main objective of the flight was to instruct the crew, because photos and images related to terrorism were found on the phone of the pilot of Iranian nationality.

According to information released by the Argentine press, photos and videos of weapons, armies and leaders and people who had been killed were found on the phone of the pilot Gholamreza Ghasemi. There were also images related to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Quds Forces. (paramilitary arm of the IRGC, related to terrorism by the US) and Hezbollah.

On October 14, the Argentine Justice authorized the departure of the last five crew members who were still being held in the country, where the plane will remain. Federal Judge Federico Villena considered that there was not enough evidence to prosecute the crew members of the EMTRASUR plane for the crime of financing terrorist activities.

With information from EFE Y D.W..

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