- Title: Bolivian airline CEO to be jailed until soccer crash trial ends
- Date: 9th December 2016
- Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (DECEMBER 06, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** PEOPLE GATHERED AROUND MARACANA STADIUM IN TRIBUTE TO CRASH VICTIMS VARIOUS OF BRAZILIANS HOLDING HANDS AS THEY LOOP AROUND THE MARACANA STADIUM
- Embargoed: 24th December 2016 03:44
- Keywords: Chapeco Chapecoense soccer plane crash LaMia Gustavo Vargas
- Location: SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA + RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
- City: SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA + RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
- Country: Bolivia
- Reuters ID: LVA0025C5TLQB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
The head of the Bolivian company whose plane crashed in Colombia last month, killing dozens of Brazilian soccer players, will be held on manslaughter and other charges until the investigation is complete, authorities said on Thursday (December 8).
Gustavo Vargas, chief executive of charter airline LaMia, who denies the charges against him, was brought in for initial questioning by Bolivian prosecutors on Tuesday (December 6).
After Vargas spent Wednesday in a hospital being treated for conditions including diabetes, a judge agreed with prosecutors that there was enough evidence to hold him until trial.
"Dispensing as such the measure of exceptional detention for citizen, Gustavo Vargas Gamboa, at the Palmasola Santa Cruz rehabilitation centre, in PC area four, who's to be treated as such but open to a condition of innocence," Judge Albania Caballero announced.
Vargas remains defiant.
The crash happened in Colombia late last month, killing 71 people after the plane apparently ran out of fuel.
The aircraft had been carrying Brazil's Chapecoense soccer team to a championship in the Colombian city Medellin.
Bolivian authorities last week suspended the license of LaMia, which was bringing the Chapecoense club to the finals of the Copa Sudamericana. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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