Dr. Jorge Aja Espil, the Argentine Ambassador to Washington, has written a note to his government questioning the continuing detention of Jacobo Timerman, it was reported here by Jacob Kovadloff, director of South American Affairs for the American Jewish Committee.
Kovadloff noted that last Sunday was the second anniversary of the arrest of Timerman, the editor and publisher of La Opinion. Timerman, whose newspaper was seized by the government, is still under house arrest in his Buenos Aires apartment even though the Argentine Supreme Court said last summer he should be released since there are no charges against him. His wife and three children are now living in Israel and he wants to join them.
Aja Espil’s note pointed out that the continued detention of Timerman is a constant source of criticism of Argentina abroad, according to Kovadloff. He said the government bas distributed Aja Espil’s notes to garrisons and military units. Aja Espil said that one of the reasons given for the continued imprisonment of Timerman was the presumed “adverse reaction” from the government’s “internal front.” The English-language Buenos Aires Herald said in a recent editorial that Timerman was the ruling junta’s “only prisoner” drawing a parallel to the Dreyfus case in France.
According to Kavadloff, the Argentine Ambassador has confirmed to Rep. Lawrence P. McDonald (D. Ga) that he advised his government to reconsider the detention of Timerman. Kovadloff noted that according to Argentine newspapers, several notable foreign personalities have asked the government to reconsider Timerman’s case and that on March 17 Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Washington Pastor was quoted as saying that Timerman would possibly be allowed to leave the country after a “short” period of time.
Two weeks ago a delegation of the New York Bar Association visited Argentina on a special mission to investigate the status of lawyer and the judiciary in Argentina, Kovadloff said, One of the delegation’s members, retired U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Iankel, said he was angered by his treatment when he requested an interview with Timerman. Frankel said he was first told that he could see Timerman but then told that, because of an oversight, final permission could not be immediately granted.
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