Скачать или смотреть Spain rejects extradition of ex Venezuelan spy chief

(16 Sep 2019) Spain's National Court on Monday rejected the extradition to the US of a former Venezuelan military spy chief accused of drug smuggling and other charges.
Judges decided to release retired Major General Hugo Carvajal, who denies the charges and has claimed that the extradition request was politically motivated, later in the day.
He told reporters outside the prison that he intends to remain in Spain.
The court was expected to issue its written ruling later, according to a court spokesman who wasn't authorized to be identified by name in media reports.
Carvajal headed Venezuela's military intelligence agency for more than a decade and was a close aide to former Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez.
Earlier this year, he fled to Spain after publicly supporting the opposition's efforts to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
At a court hearing in Madrid last week, his lawyers claimed the US sought the extradition because the information Carvajal has from controlling the secrets of Venezuela's armed forces for so long, had the potential to topple the current Venezuelan government.
Spanish and US officials, however, have cast doubts on Carvajal's claims to hold information that would currently be relevant, as he was demoted and retired shortly after Maduro came to power in 2013.
The former general was arrested in Aruba in 2014 on another drug warrant, but authorities in the Dutch Caribbean island rejected extraditing him to the US and sent him back to Caracas.
When Carvajal publicly backed Maduro's opponents earlier this year, he fled to Madrid, where Spanish intelligence officials initially welcomed him.
But police arrested the former spy chief in mid-April after the US issued a drug warrant.

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