'Otoniel' tries to stop his extradition with a double judicial maneuver between courts

Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias Otoniel, is not only being challenged before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) to prevent his extradition to the United States, but he is also looking for the Supreme Court of Justice itself to end up suspending that process.

Precisely from the high court they indicated that they will not suspend the sending of 'Otoniel' while he submits to the JEP to deliver information about the conflict. The main reason is that the former chief criminal officer of the Gulf Clan was not included in the list of former FARC combatants, so he cannot enter that court.

However, Úsuga would also be reviving the criminal proceedings he has for drug trafficking in the country and thus ensure that it is the same Court that ends up suspending his extradition, since Colombian jurisprudence contemplates two different proceedings for the same crime.

Sources of the television news newspaper Noticias RCN revealed that the defense of the one who was the most wanted drug trafficker in the country is in steps to reactivate all cases of drug trafficking in the ordinary courts and condemn its agent in Colombia.

However, in that news report they reported that prosecutor Mario Burgos made a modification to the indictment against 'Otoniel', which was endorsed by the judge in the case, where the accusation by concert to commit crimes no longer included purposes of drug trafficking.

“That is what we are going to be able to prove in the oral trial, with specific purposes as was the clarification of homicide, terrorism and forced displacement, no other purpose,” Burgos said in RCN News.

In that media outlet, the sources of the trial also told them that the defense of 'Otoniel' is on a kind of tour of the Colombian courts, reviving proceedings against them and that hearings would have even been scheduled for April, May and June.

They even told them that weeks ago the Supreme Court of Justice received a request to refuse the capo's extradition, since the file justifying his extradition does not indicate the identities, dates and the precise account of the facts for which he must appear in the United States. However, the High Court replied that they will refrain from suspending this process.

On the other hand, on RCN Radio they reported that in the JEP they responded negatively to the request of the defense of Úsuga to stop his sending to the United States country while he appears before that court of peace, rendering his voluntary statements within the macro cases in which they have requested him in that jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, President Iván Duque described the decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice and the JEP not to suspend the extradition of 'Otoniel' as coherent.

“It seems very good to me, and that is what should happen to him with that criminal. He is a drug trafficker, moreover, it seems to me that he is consistent with jurisprudence and with previous decisions of people who have been in drug trafficking and are not allowed that path to avoid their rightful path,” the statements of the president of the Colombians were told at that station.

On Monday, the Supreme Court denied suspending the shipment of Úsuga to the United States as he was not part of any of the armed actors that had submitted himself in the peace process with the FARC.

“The Chamber shall refrain from referring the file to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, from which it emerges that the request for suspension of the extradition procedure will not be granted either, since there is no serious and reasoned sight that Dairo Antonio Úsuga David complies with the rationae personae factor,” they argued.

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