Iranian Crew of Venezuelan Plane Freed by Argentina
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Argentina released 12 crew members of a Venezuelan plane, including an Iranian national, who had been confined at the request of the US in June.
An appeals court ruled on Tuesday that 11 Venezuelans and one Iranian travelling on board the plane held at Ezeiza airport can depart.
Authorities also called on the judge to conclude investigation into the remaining seven crew within 10 days, Press TV reported.
He was ordered to speed up and conclude "all pending proceedings, the definition of the procedural situation and the restrictions imposed on people and things".
Four Iranians and three Venezuelans will remain prohibited from leaving the country for further investigation of their case, it added.
One of the Iranians prevented from leaving is pilot Gholamreza Ghasemi who had to land his Boeing 747 cargo plane in Argentina on June 8 from Mexico with a shipment of auto parts after unsuccessfully attempting to enter Uruguay.
Both Venezuela and Iran, which signed a 20-year cooperation accord in June, are under draconian US sanctions.
Washington says the sale of the plane to Emtrasur, a subsidiary of Venezuelan state carrier Conviasa, in October 2021 violated US sanctions.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the US of trying "to steal from us a gigantic, modern cargo airplane".
Iran has expertise in flying Boeing 747s because it has a number of them that date from the pre-Revolution era. These older planes are still flying and Iranian pilots have some unique expertise in keeping them aloft and extending their abilities.
The Iranian pilot’s son, Hossein Ghasemi, recently said that his father had flown with many airlines in the past and had flown to Dubai, Damascus, Paris and other cities.
Since the sale the plane, his father had been assigned by the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization to train Venezuelan pilots. He had spent a year training the Venezuelans and made various flights in South America.
