Argentina’ Defence Ministry announced on Monday that two top Navy officers had been disciplined for their responsibility in plotting the course of the training frigate ARA Libertad currently retained in Ghana on an injunction from a US based hedge fund and following a failed plea last Thursday.
The Argentine Navy Secretary General Luis María González Day, expressed confidence on Sunday that the joint ministerial commission that went to Ghana to seek the release of the training vessel ARA Libertad will reach a successful agreement.
Argentina is sending a top level ministerial delegation to Ghana to discuss the release of the Navy’s tall vessel ARA Libertad, retained in the African country following a Thursday court ruling which confirmed the seizure on the complaint from a hedge fund.
A Ghana court judge rejected on Thursday the plea put forward by Argentina to release the ARA Libertad training ship, which has been detained in a port close to Accra with its crew since October 2nd due to a complaint by a US hedge fund.
Argentina is refusing to pay the 20 million dollars in ransom that New York hedge fund dealer Paul Singer is demanding in exchange for releasing the country’s Naval training vessel currently retained in the port of Tempa, Ghana, West Africa, reports the New York Post.
The case of the seized Argentine naval ship ARA Libertad was heard on Tuesday by a Ghana Commercial Court which will rule on Thursday whether to release the vessel impounded on arrival last week at the Port of Tema, according to the official Ghana News Agency.
Next Tuesday the Ghana Supreme Court will be holding a hearing to consider a motion from the government of President Cristina Fernandez requesting the annulment of the injunction retaining Argentina’s navy training vessel ARA Libertad following a legal proceeding from a hedge fund holding Argentine defaulted sovereign bonds.
Argentina will have to come up with 10 million dollars or more as a bond to liberate the flagship of its navy, “Libertad” retained in the Ghanaian port of Tema, following on the request from a US hedge fund.
Argentina claimed on Wednesday that the navy school training frigate “Libertad” has been retained in Ghana and blamed “unscrupulous financers” belonging to “vulture funds” who are demanding the payment of sovereign bonds, said the office of Minister Hector Timerman in an official communiqué.
President Hugo Chavez underlined the significance of the defence cooperation memorandum signed between Venezuela and Argentina which is part of “the necessary strategic integration of the armed forces in the framework of Mercosur and turning the block into a military power”.