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The government of Spain authorized the extradition to Colombia of businessman Carlos Mattos Barrero, investigated in the country for alleged bribes of judicial officials to obtain favorable rulings in processes in which his car importing company was linked.
The decision, which was made by the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Estaña, in a meeting of February 16, was notified this Friday to the Ministry of Justice.
Mattos’ extradition had already been approved in June of last year, but four months later it was annulled by the Spanish Constitutional Court which considered, before an appeal filed by the defense of the businessman, that “his rights to have a process with all the guarantees in connection with his rights to personal freedom had been violated and freedom of residence and movement ”.
EL TIEMPO learned that the recent decision has to do with an extradition request that was presented in 2019 for events that occurred in 2016 and 2017, according to which, through a judicial official, 150 million pesos were delivered to the Judge 16 Municipal Civil of Bogotá.
According to the investigation, Judge Ligia del Carmen Herández Pérez learned in 2015 of a request for early evidence in a process where the company Hyundai Colombia Automotriz SA, of Mr. Mattos Barrero, appeared as the plaintiff, and the Global Car company as the defendant. World SAS, and in April 2016 decreed, after receiving a bribe, two Precautionary measures in favor of the economic interests of Hyundai Colombia Automotriz SA
The judge was sentenced to 20 months in prison; But in his process it was only proven that he received a bribe for 30 million pesos during his work in the judicial office.
(Read in context: The Court condemns Judge Mattos and asks to investigate bribes).
This process is different from the one that sustained the first extradition request against Mattos, presented in 2018, and which was stopped last October by the Constitutional Court and later filed by the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court from Spain.
This first case, due to events in 2015, has to do with an alleged offering of bribes to system officials of the Bogotá Judicial Administration Sectional Directorate, to manipulate the distribution of a lawsuit by the Colombian company Hyundai Colombia Automotriz SA against the Korean company Hyundai Motor Company.
The lawyer Iván Cancino, Mattos’s defender, said, when consulted by this newspaper, that they have not been notified of the decision and that his client is free and is at his home in Madrid. He assured that although there are no ordinary remedies for this decision, they could request special protection, as in the other case. And he insisted that his client is an older man and has health problems.
The Prosecutor’s Office said that Dijín has already received the order to advance the transfer procedures.
For the call Hyundai case There are already 11 people charged, eight of these indicated have already accepted charges before the Colombian justice.
The step by step of the first extradition process that ended up archived
In October 2018, the 11th Prosecutor’s Office Delegated to the Bogotá Court sent the request for the extradition of businessman Carlos Mattos to the Ministry of Justice, which in turn made the request to the Government of Spain official through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After studying the file, on May 3, 2019, the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court of Spain authorized the extradition. On July 1 of that same year, the Plenary of the Criminal Chamber, upon resolving an appeal, confirmed the decision of May 3.
However, the First Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Spain decided, on October 19, 2020, to decide in favor of Mattos an amparo appeal filed by the businessman’s defense. Thus, the Court annulled the May and July orders issued by the Third Chamber and the Plenary of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, respectively.
By virtue of that decision, the Third Section decreed, on October 28, 2020, the filing of the procedure, a decision that was notified to the country, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, in a verbal note on January 19, 2021.
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