Japan’s space agency engineers detained at Carthage airport for possessing satellite blueprint – The North Africa Post

Reports say that Tunisian customs held for several hours Tuesday a group Japanese space engineers who arrived at Carthage’s international airport with a satellite blueprint. The blueprint was mistakenly taken as a spying device.

The engineers, according to Tunisian Space Association, were interrogated for two hours and they were only released following the intervention of the country’s top authorities.

The Japanese space agency JAXA sent experts to attend the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), which took place over the weekend.

They are expected make several presentations before and during summit.

According to Ahmed Fadhel of the Tunisian Space Association (Tunisian Space Association), the customs mistakenly took the blue print as a spying device.

“Would the representatives of the third largest space agency in the world have fun taking the risk of smuggling a real satellite in a suitcase? We welcome them in this way during their first visit to Tunisia!” he posited.

The Japanese ambassador to North Africa announced earlier this week that a committee was being established to increase investments and assist Japanese investors in overcoming administrative hurdles.