El 'Pollo' Carvajal hides behind the "escaped" Catalan independence fighters to insist on his freedom

He argues that several European countries chose to let them go free and mentions Llarena's decision regarding Anna Gabriel

MADRID, 9 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former head of Venezuelan Intelligence Hugo 'El Pollo' Carvajal has disgraced the Criminal Chamber of the National High Court for not granting him provisional release while his extradition to the US is being processed and reminds him that, in the case of "the Catalan separatists", courts in countries such as Belgium, Italy, Ireland or Switzerland chose to release the "escaped" while awaiting judicial decisions.

In his appeal, to which Europa Press has had access, Carvajal's defense disputes the decision not to grant him provisional release while the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decides on his case, and mentions that as with the "escaped", when the former deputy of the CUP Anna Gabriel turned herself in before the Supreme Court, the investigating judge of the 'procés', Pablo Llarena, opted for provisional release, annulling the arrest warrants he had issued against her.

After exposing these cases, the defense accuses the Criminal Chamber of the National Court of maintaining "a prison practice" in extradition cases like his and reminds him that it goes against the principle of exceptionality of preventive detention. For this reason, in addition, it requests the court to convene a public hearing for both the defense and the Public Prosecutor to substantiate their arguments.

On the other hand, Carvajal understands that the Chamber cannot decide to keep him in prison while the ECHR decides. "We say that it is an argument used to the contrary because the general rule should be freedom and more so when the decision does not depend on the court that keeps Mr. Carvajal in prison," argues the defense, adding that this thesis of the Chamber is "false" because "it is expressed in a manner contrary to what should be the application of the general principle of law, which is freedom."

Thus, the defense explains that the logical thing is that given that the decision on extradition to the United States does not depend on the National High Court but on the ECHR, "they should be released and wait for the decision of said Court, since jurisdictionally the present matter only It depends on himself."

After this, the lawyers charge against the Chamber because they understand that it prejudges in its car a decision of the ECHR that is yet to be known. "This reasoning is not correct or legally valid because something that is nothing more than a hypothesis or conjecture is being established as a fact as a basis for depriving a person of liberty," they add.

They also point out that the suspension of the surrender adopted by the ECHR should not be understood as "a delaying trick of the defense" and they wonder what will happen in the event that he is not finally extradited.

In this sense, they recall that Hugo Carvajal "has strong roots in his Spain, with all his children and his partner here" and that it could be decided to release him provisionally with some precautionary measure such as the telematic bracelet, something that has "wide use in prison enforcement".

Finally, they refute the Chamber for saying in its order that the extradition was only pending that decision of the ECHR because there are still "two contentious appeals in the Asylum files", which remain pending in the Contentious Chamber of the National audience. And they remind the magistrates that it may have a direct impact on the Execution, given that with the estimation of either of the two, the delivery decision would be "unfeasible by legal imperative."

The former head of Military Counterintelligence with Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro is persecuted in the US for events that occurred between 1999 and 2019, when he would have belonged to the so-called 'Cartel of the Suns', a criminal organization supposedly managed by 'Chavista' charges that , with the alleged collaboration of the FARC and other armed groups, would have introduced large quantities of drugs into the United States.

'El Pollo' has been in the hands of the Spanish authorities since September 9, when he was arrested by the National Police, during a joint operation with the US DEA, in a Madrid apartment where he lived "totally cloistered", as reported then the security body.

His capture reactivated the extradition process to the United States, which was approved in 2020 but had not been able to materialize because Carvajal fled in November 2019, although his defense emphasizes that he never left Spain.

Before his escape, Carvajal requested a first asylum claiming that he was the victim of political persecution because the US authorities placed him within Maduro's circle of trust.

This initial request was denied in 2019, but he did not have formal knowledge of it until last September. So, he reacted by trying to get Interior to reverse his decision, without success.

Carvajal launched a second request for asylum, highlighting the "collaboration process" with the Spanish Justice that began after being captured and that led to the reopening of a case on the alleged illegal financing of Podemos that was filed in 2016.