MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Prosecutor wants Emtrasur plane and crew to stay pending lab reports

Judge Villena must now decide on the fate of the plane and its crew

Argentine prosecutors handling the case of the Emtrasur Boeing 747-300 seized at the Ezeiza international airport Friday objected to the aircraft's crew being allowed to leave the country.

Federal Prosecutor of Lomas de Zamora Cecilia Incardona requested an extension of the ban on the departure from the country of the five Iranian and 14 Venezuelan nationals who arrived in the country on June 8 aboard the cargo airplane.

The prosecutor also sought that the aircraft formerly owned by Iran's Mahan Air be prevented from returning to Venezuela.

The crew's legal team had requested the lifting of the precautionary measures and that each of them is allowed to return to their countries, while the Iranian government had also called for the measures to be lifted.

Prosecutor Incardona considered there is a substantial amount of evidence still to be produced and weighed before ruling on the departure of the Iranians and Venezuelans who brought seats from Querétaro, Mexico, to a Volkswagen assembly plant in Argentina.

Although none of the crewmembers has been formally charged with any crime, the prosecutor considered that it has not been fully determined that it was only a flight that transported cargo while at the same time the Iranians were instructing the Venezuelans on the particulars of the aircraft.

The court is yet to receive a report on the contents of the cell phones of the crewmembers.

Incardona said she feared that if any information stemming from those reports resulted in incriminatory data, neither Venezuela nor Iran would consent to the extradition of their nationals.