Spain Denies Extradition of Moroccan Migrant Trafficking Suspect, Citing Rights Concerns

The extradition of the Moroccan "would violate" his fundamental rights to "judicial protection, a trial with all guarantees, individual liberty and freedom of residence and movement," the Audiencia Nacional explained in rejecting Friday the request from the office of the Attorney General at the Court of Appeal in Nador, which accuses the Moroccan of leading a network of sub-Saharan migrant trafficking, recalls La Vanguardia.

Arrested last August in Roquetas de Mar (Almería), the accused has been running this migrant trafficking since 2009, the Moroccan prosecutor’s office points out, noting that he was transporting sub-Saharan migrants from Nador in exchange for 15,000 to 20,000 dirhams (between 1,300 and 1,800 euros) to Europe on inflatable boats and organizing up to three operations per week.

Following the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, judicial control is required before authorizing an extradition, insists the Audiencia Nacional, which rejected the Moroccan request. A decision that the president of the criminal chamber, Alfonso Guevara, does not approve of, who wished for the extradition of the accused so that he could be tried for crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, criminal association and migrant trafficking.

According to him, the Audiencia Nacional could have been inspired by the order of the criminal chamber of May 2022, in which, without contradicting the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, it ruled that the international arrest warrant issued by a Moroccan prosecutor "is in line with the doctrine emanating from European jurisprudence." In other words, the Moroccan prosecutor is part of the Moroccan judiciary and is therefore "independent of the other powers of the State, in particular the Executive."