by Federal judge María Eugenia Capuchetti issued this Monday the lack of merit for the three detainees accused of forming a terrorist cell who was waiting for a 30 kilo package from Yemen and ordered that they be released immediately.
“At the moment, No evidence has been incorporated to corroborate the investigated hypothesis. and that it was part of the aforementioned accusation,” said the judge in the resolution accessed by the Télam agency from sources in the investigation.
The three detainees had denied the accusation in their respective investigative statements and one had said he was a ping-pong teacher, another a hairdresser and the third a freelance journalist with activities linked to intelligence..
The arrests were ordered and requested to be carried out before the judicial fair by order of Judge María Romilda Servini and the case was made public at the beginning of this year through statements by the Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich.
“When the time comes to resolve, it is considered that the evidentiary table incorporated in the present actions linked to the participation of (Naem Chatay) Chassan, (Ramón Alberto) Domínguez and (Juan Manuel) Ledesma in the act that was charged to them is, for the moment , insufficient to dictate some of the decisions provided for by articles 306 and 336 of the National Criminal Procedure Code,” said Judge Capuchetti.
All of them had been charged with “integrating a transnational criminal association of uninterrupted existence during the time dedicated to the organization and perpetration of terrorist attacks“, something that has not been proven so far in the investigation.
“This organization would record – according to the accusation added to the file – activities in different countries in the region, in particular Colombia, from where the perpetration of an attack – presumably, with explosives – would have been organized. to a property located in the area of this city linked to the Jewish community“.
However, “at the momentno evidence element has been incorporated that allows corroboration of the hypothesis investigated and that formed part of the aforementioned accusation. Indeed, the situation of those named raises a series of questions that still need to be clarified to issue a conclusive decision in one of the senses provided by the ritual order,” the judge said.
From the complaint it was possible to corroborate that Chassan arrived in the country on December 30, when he was detained, that he would stay at the “Gran Hotel España” (according to the reservation made on 12/14/2023), that Domínguez intended to receive an order in A hair salon worked and then abandoned that request (in October 2023) and filed a complaint for a possible scam under that order.
“The truth is that the different measures carried out so far, especially the analysis of the seized electronic devices, do not allow it to be proven that Chassan, Domínguez and Ledesma have a connection with the act of which they were accused,” the judge said. Capuchetti.
“Indeed, The existence of the alleged shipment that was going to arrive in the country could not be corroborated and that it was alluded to in the information that began this investigation,” said the judge.
The origin of the investigation dates back to December 28, 2023 when the police authorities of the Anti-Terrorist Investigation Unit Department of the Argentine Federal Police (hereinafter the DUIA) initiated summary 059-71-000.144/20231 on the occasion of a telephone communication that he received from the security personnel of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in which it was made known that they had sensitive information to communicate.
On that occasion, it was highlighted that this information came to the attention of the embassy through some WhatsApp messages that had been forwarded by an official of the Argentine National Gendarmerie, whose identity is reserved in the case.
Among these messages, a photograph of the passport of the Republic of Colombia AZ531316 was found in the name of Naem Chatay Chassan and an audio in which it was communicated: “a Colombian (in relation to Chassan) would have entered the country to make a mistake”, according to the judge.
With information from Télam
