Argentine Foreign minister Hector Timerman began Monday morning his round of contacts in New York to lobby for the release of the Navy’s training frigate retained in Ghana but suffered a first setback when he met with the president of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Gert Rosenthal.
Argentina demanded that Ghana “assumes its responsibility” of freeing the Navy flagship ARA Libertad, which remains impounded in the African country’s port Tema over claims of US funds and warned Argentina could take the case to the United Nations, because negotiating with ‘vulture funds’ is not an option.
The saga of the Argentine Navy flagship ARA Libertad retained in Ghana seems to have no short term political solution as the government of President Cristina Fernandez was expecting, while in Buenos Aires the head of military strategic intelligence resigned and there is mounting pressure on the Ministry of Defence.
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.
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.