Venezuela Rejects Extradition Request for the Accused Killer of Two Cuban Women in Madrid

The three victims of the Usera Street murder. From left to right, Elisa Consuegra, Pepe Castillo and Maritza Osorio. (El Mundo)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, April 10, 2019 — The man accused in the so-called Usera triple murder will be tried in Venezuela, not in Spain. In citing its resaon for rejecting an extradition request, the criminal division of the Supreme Court in Caracas noted that Dahud Hanid Ortíz, the man accused of the murders of two Cubans and an Ecuadorian in June 2016, is a Venezuelan national.

The defendant, who also holds U.S. citizenship, is Venezuelan by birth, which — according to Venezuela’s criminal statutes and its constitution — prevents him from being handed over to another country for trial.

The criminal court ordered the trial to be held in Venezuela, where Ortíz fled to evade Spanish justice. In its finding the court pledged its “firm commitment to the Kingdom of Spain that Dahud Hanid Ortíz will be judged solely for the crimes of homicide and arson,” adding that “the above-mentioned citizen will be treated with due respect in accordance the inherent dignity of a human being.”

The court is also ordering the public prosecutor’s office to solicit and collect from the Kingdom of Spain any corroborating evidence that might be used in his prosecution.

A court in Madrid, where the triple murder was investigated, requested his extradition on November 30. The United States also issued an extradition request for the suspect, Dahud Hanid Ortíz, who served in the U.S. army as a first lieutenant and fought in the Iraqi war.

Cuba has also threatened to intervene because two of the victims, Elisa Consuegra Gálvez and Maritza Osorio Riverón, were Cuban citizens.

Venezuelan authorities arrested Ortíz on October 13, 2018 in El Chaparral district of Puerto Ordaz, a mining area in the south of the country. During his arrest, two documents issued in the names Abdel D. Makarem Dalal and Makarem Urdaneta Fayiz Hussein were seized. Also found were a U.S. Army Purple Heart and a German student ID card.

The three murders attributed to Ortíz occurred on June 22, 2016 in Madrid’s Usera district. Emergency services personnel made the discovery after responding to reports of a fire at the offices of the Eurasia law firm. It is alleged the suspect started the fire to cover his tracks.

According to an investigation by Spanish police, the incident was an act of revenge by Hanid Ortíz after discovering that his wife, Irina Trippel, had been having an affair with Victor Salas, a Peruvian attorney and owner of the law firm where the two Cuban women worked.

As academic records indicate, attorney Elisa Consuegra Galvez, who was born in Havana, was considered a brilliant student. She had studied at the Vladimir Lenin Vocational School. She later received a law degree from the University of Havana and had worked in Cuba as judge.

A few days after the murder, Ortíz wrote a note to the sister of his ex-wife in which he said, “I used to be a good man but Irina changed all that… I don’t know who I am anymore… I did terrible things without wanting to. I’m dead inside.”

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