The former Transavia pilot found not guilty in 2017 of involvement in death flights on behalf of the Argentine junta was detained in Spain prior to his trial at the suggestion of a Dutch justice ministry official.

Justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus has told MPs that the idea to tell Argentina Julio Poch would be flying to Spain came from a public prosecution department worker who had been ‘explicit about the option of arresting Mr Poch in a third country’.

Poch was arrested in Spain in September 2009 while about to make his final flight for Transavia, where he had worked since 2003.  There is no extradition treaty between the Netherlands and Argentina.

Poch was held in custody for eight years prior to the trial taking place. He had always denied involvement in death flights, in which opponents of the junta (1976-1983) were drugged and thrown from planes. At the end of 2017 he was found not guilty by a court in Argentina due to a lack of evidence.

He is now holding the Dutch state responsible for damages and has launched legal action. The Dutch state had consistently said it was not involved in the extradition proceedings.

Poch is alleged to have told several Transavia pilots about the death flights, saying ‘we threw them from planes’. Those claims were the basis for his arrest and deportation.