MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's Justice Minister accuses FBI of “terrible crimes”

Argentine Justice Minister Aníbal Fernández said on Wednesday that the FBI was trying to bribe María Luján Telpuk – the former airport security officer who discovered the suitcase with 800,000 dollars last year and who is currently in Miami testifying in another related case — by offering her political asylum and employment.

Justice and Security Minister Aníbal Fernández described as "a sort of bribe," the offer of political asylum and employment allegedly presented by the FBI to suitcase scandal witness María Luján Telpuk. Fernández went on to accuse the US security agency of committing "terrible crimes". Telpuk, a former airport police officer, has been given evidence in court in Miami about the circumstances in which she discovered a 800,000-dollar stash concealed in a suitcase that US-Venezuelan citizen Guido Antonini Wilson was trying to smuggle into Argentina on August 4 last year. Fernández pulled no punches in his description of the FBI's alleged action. "Telpuk says she was offered some sort of (political) asylum and employment in exchange for information. That's kind of a bribe," he said. As for Telpuk being allegedly arrested by FBI officers at Miami airport upon entering the US, Fernández said, "See what they are capable of doing? She had to put up with a two-hour interrogation session because nobody had told her she had the right to remain silent. In Argentina, those officers would have been imprisoned under charges of bribery and coercion. In Argentina, a prosecutor would have demanded that those officers be identified and arrested. These (FBI) crimes are terrible, but no-one mentions it because the government of Argentina is an easier target." In her court testimony before the Miami court, Telpuk claimed that Customs officer Jorge Lamastra hinted that (Antonini Wilson's suitcase) not be opened for inspection. The Argentine Customs service issued Wednesday a press release denying the claim and pointing out that Lamastra's signature appears on the official document recording the discovery of the cash concealed in Antonini's suitcase. In the latest developments in the trial itself, the legal team advising Franklin Durán, the sole defendant, who stands accused of being an undercover agent of the Venezuelan government in the US, sought to downplay the importance of his being found in possession of an ID card identifying him as an officer of the Venezuelan Naval Intelligence Service. To this aim, Durán's defence summoned a witness who claimed that possession of such ID cards was common in Venezuela and did not necessarily prove real membership of the force in question. The suitcase scandal with the 800.000 USD supposedly for the presidential campaign of Mrs. Kirchner in 2007 originated in Venezuela's government owned oil corporation PDVSA. The cover up operation which was geared to convince Antonini to declare the money was his, turned out to be a flop. US-Venezuelan citizen Antonini reached a deal with the FBI and is a protected witness while his former fellow "Venezuelan agents" who tried to convince him in Miami have been taken into custody or fled.