Spanish Court Blocks Extradition of Moroccan Murder Suspect Wanted for Drug Crimes

The defendant remained in pre-trial detention in Tenerife from November 22 to December 30, 2022, before being granted provisional release with the obligation to appear weekly. The Spanish court had decided to withdraw his passport so that he would not leave the territory, recalls Ok Diario.

Morocco is demanding this national it suspects of being the author of the murder of a drug trafficker in 2014. The autopsy performed on the body of the victim, found lying in his blood after receiving bullets in the neck and head, made it possible to identify this drug trafficker, a member of a network that was carrying out an operation in which the Moroccan who is the subject of the extradition request was also involved.

The Audiencia Nacional had accepted in July the request for extradition of the defendant to Morocco. At the time, his defense had opposed it, arguing that in Morocco the death penalty is still in force and that the person concerned could be sentenced to this penalty. But the court then changed its mind, considering that the international arrest warrant for drug trafficking issued by Morocco did not contain precise information on the date and place of the crime, rejecting the extradition request.