Guatemala agrees to U.S. extradition of ex-President

[xinhui]

I am a glass half full type of guy...this goes to show that it is not business as usual anymore.


GUATEMALA CITY | Fri Aug 26, 2011 9:05pm EDT

(Reuters) - Guatemala's Constitutional Court Friday ratified the extradition of former President Alfonso Portillo to the United States, where he faces money laundering charges.

Portillo, who was president from 2000 to 2004, is accused of laundering $70 million through U.S. banks.

"This court has voted unanimously to deny the appeal by Alfonso Antonio Portillo Cabrera and consequently the extradition order to the United States holds firm," said Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre, president of the court.

No date has been set for the extradition, which also must be approved by President Alvaro Colom.

The court recommended that Portillo, currently under house arrest, be moved to a detention center until Colom makes a decision on the case.

A federal grand jury in New York requested Portillo's extradition in January, claiming he and a team of co-conspirators embezzled Guatemalan public funds and hid the money in offshore accounts.

The U.S. grand jury's indictment claims Portillo, 59, also laundered money through European accounts and French prosecutors are investigating the allegations.

In May, a Guatemalan court dismissed charges from the country's Public Ministry that the former head of state stole $15 million from the military in 2001.

Portillo, who took office promising to redistribute wealth in the poverty-plagued Central American country, fled Guatemala for Mexico shortly after completing his term in 2004. He was extradited from Mexico to Guatemala in 2008 to stand trial.

(Reporting by Mike McDonald; editing by Todd Eastham)

[Doktor]

Is it legal to extradite Guatemalan citizen into other countries?

I bet the US wouldn't extradite a retired ex-truck driver outside no matter what ;)

[Bigfella]

Positive news. Now, if they can only snag a few mass murderers. Might be a few people looking over their shoulder.

[BB61Vet]

Is it legal to extradite Guatemalan citizen into other countries?

I bet the US wouldn't extradite a retired ex-truck driver outside no matter what ;)

Doc, ya might be surprised.

[Officer of Engineers]

Is it legal to extradite Guatemalan citizen into other countries?

I bet the US wouldn't extradite a retired ex-truck driver outside no matter what ;)

The US will extradict even if that citizen was upholding American Law

From Bounty hunter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bounty hunters will run into serious legal problems if they try to get fugitives from other countries. Laws in nearly all countries outside the U.S. will judge the re-arrest of any fugitive by private persons as kidnapping, or the bail agent may incur the punishments of some other serious crime if local and international laws are broken by them. While the United States government generally allows the activities of bounty hunters in the United States, the government is not as tolerant of these activities when they are legally a felony in other sovereign nations.[4]

Noted bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman (star of the TV series Dog the Bounty Hunter) was arrested in Mexico after he apprehended the multi-millionaire rapist and fugitive Andrew Luster. Chapman was subsequently released and returned to the U.S.[1] Chapman himself was later declared a fugitive by a Mexican prosecutor and was subsequently arrested in the United States to be extradited back to Mexico. Chapman maintains that under Mexico's citizen arrest law, he and his crew acted under proper policy.

Daniel Kear of Fairfax, Virginia pursued and apprehended Sidney Jaffe at a residence in Canada and returned him to Florida to face trial. Kear was extradited to Canada in 1983, and convicted of kidnapping.[4]

Several bounty hunters have also been arrested for killing the fugitive or apprehending the wrong individuals, mistaking innocent people for fugitives.[5]

Unlike police officers, they have no legal protections against injuries to non-fugitives and few legal protections against injuries to their targets.

In a Texas case, bounty hunters Richard James and his partner DG Pearson were arrested in 2001 for felony charges during an arrest. The charges were levied by the fugitive and his family, but were later dismissed against the hunters after the fugitive's wife shot a deputy sheriff in another arrest attempt of the fugitive by the county sheriff's department. The hunters sued the fugitive and family, winning the civil suit for malicious prosecution with a judgment amount of $1.5 million.[citation needed]

[BB61Vet]

Speaking of the Texas case you mentioned, please keep in mind that sometimes it's not in a country's best interest to have someone extradited - the punishments in the US can be more severe than those meted out in other countries. Please remember that Texas is the state with the Express Lane for Death Row Inmates. I can see the day in the near future where parking violations will be a death penalty offense.

[Officer of Engineers]

Speaking of the Texas case you mentioned, please keep in mind that sometimes it's not in a country's best interest to have someone extradited - the punishments in the US can be more severe than those meted out in other countries. Please remember that Texas is the state with the Express Lane for Death Row Inmates. I can see the day in the near future where parking violations will be a death penalty offense.

You've misunderstood. The countries in question where the "abduction" took place cannot have the "abduction" reversed, ie, once the American criminal is back on American soil, then, he is subject to American law no matter what his home country at the time, ie Canada, Mexico, whatever, says at the time. However, those countries have a right and the power to demand the "abductors," ie the bounty hunters or even legal American agents unauthorized by the host countries, to be extraticted back to those countries for justice.

The other case I can think of is that France extraticted two of her agents to New Zealand for sinking a Greenpeace ship.