The Spanish National Audience orders Interpol to immediately hand over ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal to the U.S.
The National Audience has ordered Interpol to immediately hand over Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios to the United States authorities once the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights declaring the complaint filed by the Venezuelan military officer to be unfounded has been made known.
Once the precautionary measure granted by the European Court of Human Rights had been lifted, the Third Section urges Interpol to surrender the defendant, in execution of what was agreed by the Plenary of the Criminal Chamber on 8 November 2019, as well as in the orders of 26 November and 3 December 2021.
The Chamber orders that this resolution be communicated to the Embassy of the United States in Spain and to the director of the penitentiary centre where the defendant is incarcerated, the prison of Estremera.
This is what the judges Alfonso Guevara Marcos, Carolina Rius Alarcó and Carlos Fraile Coloma have determined in a ruling of 18 July.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected the application brought by the former Venezuelan intelligence chief.
El Pollo’ argued that, if he were to be handed over to Washington and tried by US courts, there was a real risk that he could be sentenced to life imprisonment, without access to any effective mechanism by which he could seek a reduction of sentence or a review, with a view to determining whether his continued stay in prison is justified on penological grounds.
However, Strasbourg found that Carvajal “has failed to demonstrate that, if extradited, he runs a real risk of being sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in violation of Article 3″. “And has therefore found his claim to be manifestly unfounded,” the European court said.
