Spain frees ex-Guatemalan minister wanted by UN-backed investigator
JORGE SAINZ
Associated Press
8:28 p.m. EST, November 23, 2010
MADRID (AP) — A Spanish judge Tuesday ordered a former Guatemalan interior minister be freed because authorities in the Central American country failed to request his extradition on charges he ordered the extra-judicial execution of seven inmates.
Carlos Vielmann is among several members of Guatemala's elite targeted by a United Nations-backed commission that is aiming to end criminal impunity in Guatemala and dismantle illegal security groups there.
The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG in Spanish, had linked Vielmann with the 2006 summary executions of seven inmates at the Pavon prison outside of the capital, Guatemala City. The seven were found dead after thousands of police and soldiers stormed the prison, retaking it from inmates who ran a crack-cocaine lab inside.
Vielmann has said the prisoners died while putting up a fight.
More:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-eu-spain-guatemala,0,7261177.story