Colombia’s Interior Minister confirmed that the Prosecutor General’s Office still hasn’t sent documentation to initiate the process of requesting ex-DAS director Maria del Pilar Hurtado’s extradition from Panama.
Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras said Tuesday that the ministry cannot do anything until the investigative body delivers them the request, which is the first step in the process.
“Those who should make the request are the Prosecutor General of the Nation’s Office, who sends to the Ministry of Interior the said solicitation, we prepare the documentation and send it to the Foreign Ministry, we are waiting for the Prosecutor General’s Office to give us the documentation,” said Vargas Lleras.
Ex-DAS Director Del Pilar Hurtado is wanted by the Colombian government for her role in the state intelligence agency’s major wiretapping scandal under the administration of former President Alvaro Uribe, in which political opponents and various others were illegally monitored by government officials.
Del Pilar Hurtado has been sheltered under political asylum by the Panamanian government since fall 2010, and the country’s president has stated that he will not renounce the asylum, despite the warrant for her arrest issued recently by Colombia and criticism from his own country.
UPDATE (10:30AM)
Supreme Court Judge Luis Fernando Ramirez has sent the arrest warrant for the ex-director to Prosecutor General Viviane Morales, who will now presumably begin the process of ordering the extradition of Del Pilar Hurtado.
