César Duarte’s lawyers asked a judge in Miami to deny his extradition to Mexico because the life of the former governor would be in danger.
Mexico City, December 31 (However) .– Lawyers of Cesar Duarte Jaquez asked a US federal judge to deny the extradition to Mexico from ex-governor arguing that his life in danger and that suffers a political persecution, according to information published by Reform.
The newspaper explained that the former president’s defenders presented a response to Judge Lauren F. Louis in Miami on Wednesday about the extradition memorandum.
The defenders presented three testimonies that implicated the Governor of Chihuahua, Javier Corral, and other officials, who they asked to be kept under guard for fear of reprisals from the state president.
“This evidence is witness statements that implicate Governor Corral and his Administration in the political persecution of his rivals, including the Administration’s efforts to force testimonies that implicate those rivals in criminal conduct,” argued the attorneys.
In accordance with Reform, Juan Morillo, Henry Bell and Armando Rosquete, Duarte’s attorneys, stated that if César Duarte is deprived of his liberty in Chihuahua, as the Mexican Government seeks, his life would be in danger “for revenge for organized crime” and for political persecution of which he claims to be a victim.
“Corral’s public conduct amply demonstrates his vendetta against Mr. Duarte,” they said in a document quoted by the newspaper.
César Duarte Jáquez, was arrested on July 8 in Miami, Florida. The ex-president, who was from the group of politicians promoted by Peña Nieto as “the new generation of the PRI”, had at least 21 arrest warrants in Mexico for crimes related to corruption.
Duarte, accused of “aggravated embezzlement and aggravated conspiracy,” was held in the Miami Federal Detention Center (FDC) and is awaiting the extradition trial requested by Mexico for misappropriation of money and electoral crimes.
The final hearing for the ex-governor’s extradition will be held on January 14, 2021 and does not present any deferral.
On December 16, US Judge Lauren F. Louis granted two more weeks – until December 30 – to the defense of the former Chihuahua governor, César Duarte, to respond to the memorandum of the Prosecutor’s Office that justifies his extradition for diversion of money and crimes electoral.