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The AN agrees to extradite to Guatemala the alleged intermediary of a bribe for the expansion of Puerto Quetzal

He points out that he can continue collaborating in the 'Villarejo case' from the Central American country.

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The AN agrees to extradite to Guatemala the alleged intermediary of a bribe for the expansion of Puerto Quetzal

He points out that he can continue collaborating in the 'Villarejo case' from the Central American country

MADRID, 9 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National Court has agreed to extradite to Guatemala businessman William Anthony Schwank, claimed by the country as an alleged member of a criminal group that also included former president Otto Pérez Molina and his vice president Roxana Baldetti and who would have maneuvered to obtain the illegal adjudication of an infrastructure in Puerto Quetzal.

In an order, collected by Europa Press, the Criminal Chamber establishes that all the necessary requirements are met for the delivery of Schwank with a view to his prosecution for crimes that in Guatemala would constitute illegal association, passive bribery and fraud and that in Spain would be equivalent to belonging to a criminal organization, bribery and fraud.

The magistrates of the Third Section reject all the allegations raised by the defendant's defense, among them that it is an extradition motivated by political reasons. In this regard, the judges point out that the documentation provided by the lawyers does not prove that the criminal proceedings have such motivations or that their situation could be aggravated by political considerations.

"There is no proof that the persecution of the judges or prosecutors who are indicated in said documentation as denounced or investigated are for having had a specific intervention in the process against the defendant," the order states.

In this context, the court emphasizes that the objective of prosecuting the president of Guatemala, during whose mandate the events allegedly occurred and, therefore, the rest of the authorities, officials and individuals, attributed to said process by the defense, clashes head-on with the change of governing administrations produced after the arrest warrant was issued, on April 14, 2016, since currently, with a different administration in power, the claim is maintained.

In relation to the risk to the security of the defendant or the possibility of being subjected to degrading treatment in the event of being extradited, the Chamber warns that no specific and concrete risks to his life and safety have been proven as a result of the situation of the security system. prisons.

The magistrates also respond to the alleged collaboration of the defendant in one of the pieces of the 'Villarejo case': the one known as 'Pit'.

In it, Judge Manuel García Castellón tries to find out if the brothers Ángel and Álvaro Pérez Maura hired the business group of retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, CENYT, to prevent the former from being extradited to Guatemala for his alleged involvement in paying bribes to Guatemalan authorities for the Quetzal Container Terminal (TQC) to obtain the contract to expand said port.

Regarding his alleged collaboration, the Chamber indicates that the granting of extradition does not constitute an obstacle for the appropriate statements and proceedings to be carried out, including a possible statement as a witness in the trial that may be held in Spain.

Schwank is accused of "joining, from approximately February 2012 to April 2015, a criminal group" which also included former President Pérez Molina and his vice-president Baldetti "with the intention of obtaining illicit economic benefits, derived from the proposal made by the representatives of Grup Maritim TCB for the construction and management of a container terminal in Puerto Quetzal".

The same, according to the extradition request, "not only included the technical and legal aspects, but also the offer of a commission for an amount of 28,443,000 euros, for national and international managers." "It also included in the payment of said commission the President and Vice President of the Republic, and a percentage corresponded to the team of the Quetzal Port Company, identified as "the port team" within it was the claimed party," the letter states.

This team, he adds, "had the function of circumventing the State Procurement Law, which regulates the purchase, sale and contracting of goods, supplies, works and services required by State agencies."

"The defendant participated as an advisor to the Quetzal Port company (state and autonomous entity) and received money (900,000 dollars) for managing the procedures so that the project concession was illegally awarded, evading the law," he added.