Once extradited, Gonzalo Sanchez will be brought to trial.
The Ministry of External Relations of Brazil has notified Argentina of the beginning of the extradition process for former Argentine naval officer Gonzalo Sánchez, accused of crimes against humanity during the military junta. This was reported on Tuesday by the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“May 12, the Foreign Ministry of Brazil notified our embassy in Brasilia that it already considers it possible to extradite to Argentina Gonzalo Sánchez, hiding from prosecution in the case of crimes committed at the Navy school of mechanics”, – reads the statement.
According to the Foreign Ministry, immediately after the extradition, Sanchez will be brought before the court. According to the agency, President Alberto Fernandez personally monitored the situation with the extradition of the former military man, who was detained in Brazil at the request of Argentina on Monday.
Sanchez, who was wanted by Interpol, is considered one of the members of the task force of the secret prison, located in the school of mechanics of the Argentine Navy in Buenos Aires. In recent years, the military dictatorship here was tortured and executed by opponents of the regime, whose bodies were subsequently disposed of by dumping them in the ocean from aircraft. Sanchez in particular is suspected of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Argentine journalist and writer Rodolphe Walsh.
Gonzalez fled Argentina in 2005. In 2013, he was arrested for the first time in the largest Latin American republic on the territory of the Argentine extradition request, but in 2016 was placed under house arrest in Brazil by court order. In 2019, the Federal Supreme Court, the highest judicial authority in Brazil, authorized the extradition of a 69-year-old Argentine to his home country, after which he escaped from justice. In January 2020, a new arrest warrant was issued for him.