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Last Updated: Oct 10, 2008 - 12:57:07 PM |
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.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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