Colombian Supreme Court on Thursday denied a US request to extradite a guerrilla commander who had kidnapped two Americans and a Brit in the east of Colombia, newspaper El Espectador reported.
The U.S. wanted Gustavo Anibal ‘Pablo’ Giraldo for kidnapping military contractor Matthew Burchell and Los Angeles Times journalist Scott Dalton, who was abducted while traveling with the Brittish journalist Alison Morris in the eastern plains of Colombia near the border of Venezuela.
Giraldo was the alleged commander of an ELN front in the east of Colombia. According to the report he was the guerrilla chief charged with the kidnapping of Burchell in 1999, and Dalton in 2003.
The high court ruled Giraldo has to be processed and convicted by the Colombian judiciary as he commited his crimes inside Colombia.
Morris and Dalton were kidnapped on their way to the border town of Tame. Giraldo forced the journalists to inteview him as Giraldo wanted to deliver a message to the international community.
Giraldo held the journalists to force the Colombian government to withdraw its troops from the department of Arauca. He kidnapped Burchell to scare foreign companies away from Colombia,
The Colombian Supreme Court recently denied US requests to extradite Gafas and Daniel Rueda. Gafas is the guerrilla who was captured in the miltary operation which freed French Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. Rueda was a director of ponzi scheme DMG.