MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Flag incident: three foreigners indicted

An Argentine Federal Judge indicted this week three foreign tourists who were arrested last January in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego for trampling and trashing an Argentine flag.

Briton David Fleming, 20, Australian Benjamin Sargent 28 and South African Darren Redden, 28, were arrested January 6 and held on federal charges of "desecrating the national flag". After depositing a 3,500 US dollars bail each they were released, however they had to hand in their passports and remain in Ushuaia pending a judicial decision.

The defense asked for the annulment of the trial based on the contradictory versions of the policemen reports involved in the arrest which occurred outside the Galway pub where the three foreigners had been drinking late into the night when they decided to bring down an Argentine flag flying from a mast.

However Judge Federico Calvete rejected the request supporting the plaintiff's position that in spite of some contradictions, the matter of the fact is the flag was trampled and thrown into a dustbin.

The three defendants must now wait for the final sentencing but are free to leave Tierra del Fuego but not Argentine territory.

The incident and judicial follow up has been closely monitored by the Ushuaia and Rio Grande Malvinas Veterans association.