The Constitutional Court upheld a decision Alleged drug trafficker extradited from Colombia in May 2021 while guessing itNational Court judge Ismael Morenosearching for it simulation of traffic-related international trade operations He should not have extended his stay in prison for a narcotic crime. exceededwithout giving the required extension, It has been two years at the most since he was arrested and imprisoned in the country of the Andes.
According to legal sources consulted by El Periódico de España of the Prensa Ibérica group, the decision annuls many decisions of the central investigating judge and the Criminal Division of the Court and should have resulted in the immediate release of the accused. However, this decision was delayed for practical purposes because the researched He was released on bail for several months.
In any event, the decision adopted by the First Division of the guarantee establishment on 14 November constitutional doctrine on how to calculate In cases where this stage is realized, the period of detention conflicts with a return process.
Thus, it is accepted that the decision of the investigating judge violated the right to liberty the appellant’s amparo (Article 17 of the constitution) because although the Code of Criminal Procedure does not specify from which day the deprivation of liberty will be counted, it is up to the judicial organs to determine that moment. to draw attention to the most appropriate interpretation of respect for the right to liberty called ‘favor libertatis’. For this reason, the Constitution take the procedure back to the moment just before the first of the annulled decisions was issuedIn March 2021, for the judiciary to issue a new decision respecting the recognized fundamental right.
The said researcher Gregory SHresearched by Central Education Court No. 2 of the National Court in cases filed in 2019 for drug trafficking, criminal organization and simulating international trade operations between companies to commit this crime. On March 12, 2020, the judge issued an international and European arrest warrant for this person as he entered preventive detention.
Arrested four days after the order
Just four days later, Gregorio Arrested in Bogota (Colombia)He ordered his arrest on 24 March to prevent him from escaping while it was being delivered to Spain on 26 May 2021. The arrest warrant was upheld by the judge a day later.
Returned last March He demanded his immediate release, claiming that he had spent a total of two years in a temporary state. -From March 16, 2020 to March 16, 2022- without being brought to court and without extending the period of injunction in question, as opposed to those related to others investigated in the same conspiracy.
Consider or ignore time in Colombia
He then claimed It should be counted from the moment he was arrested at his home in Colombi.a and not after his surrender to the Spanish authorities, something that both Judge Moreno and the Criminal Division of the National Court rejected in separate judgments and have now been overturned by the Constitutional Court. On the other hand, his defense argued that, as the maximum period of pre-trial detention initially agreed upon had been exceeded, an extension would no longer be possible in accordance with the guarantee institution’s own doctrine.
Judge Moreno refused the release of this person based on two arguments and stated in the first instance that his detention had expired. The period of deprivation of liberty in Colombia should not be taken into account when making extradition. For the purposes of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It also accepted the allegations of the Spanish Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office in the following sense: The time it took for the Colombian authorities to process the extradition was a matter beyond the control of the Spanish courts. and the case pursued on Spanish soil.
The judge further stated that “the court seriousness of the crime and the personal situation of the person under investigation, as well as the punishment that may be imposed”, appreciating this flight risk was “particularly significant”, A decision that was upheld by the National Court’s Criminal Division last April. However, the defense of the defendant considers that the measure should be extended before March 16, 2022 and that his client’s fundamental rights have been violated due to this failure. Which TC’s decision Judge María Luisa Balague has been a rapporteurr corrects the automatism applied to this case by the National Court
So, consider this In any case, it is necessary to analyze all personal and procedural circumstances. emphasized by the person deprived of his liberty in his writings. add the expression extradition does not always require the detainee’s previous flightor the will to escape the action of Spanish justice. In this case, the facts are a matter of the appellant in the amparo case. proactive action aimed at speeding up the return process, Therefore, the length of deprivation of liberty in Colombia prior to extradition should have been calculated for appropriate legal purposes.