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Ex Colombia Minister To Be Extradited, Ecuador
Quito - The Ecuadorian Court of Justice will
have to start detention proceedings against
Colombian ex Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos
before INTERPOL, for him to answer for assassination
in the bombing in Angostura, Colombia.
That announcement was made by Ecuadorian Attorney
General Washington Pesantez, who highlighted on
Tuesday the need that first Sucumbios province
criminal judge Daniel Mendez carry out these
procedures.
When that order is issued and the accused is out of
a country's territory, it is relevant to request
extradition, he said.
Thus, he requested that Mendez channels the
application for extradition of the ex minister,
against whom a preventive arrest warrant has been
issued, due to his involvement in the Colombian
bombing on a northern area of that territory, where
26 people died, including an Ecuadorian citizen.
The judge issued an arrest warrant the past week,
for the attack by Colombian military men on March 1,
2008 on a secret camp of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Ecuador, an action
considered as a deliberate violation of national
sovereignty.
Pesantez accused Santos of not showing the courage
he displayed when he announced that he was the
brains behind the bombing on Angostura and that he
would carry put the same actions anywhere.
"If he is politically responsible, he should be
legally responsible," he asserted.
This announcement caused friction with the
neighboring country, and its President Alvaro Uribe
considered this request as an aggression against his
territory.
However, Ecuadorian officials said it was a simple
judicial decision, apart from any political
entailment.
Ecuador and Colombia broke diplomatic relations on
March 3, 2008, two days after military men from
Bogota attacked the secret FARC camp in that
territory. |
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