SANTO DOMINGO.- The Supreme Court’s (SJC) Penal Chamber today notified the United States Embassy of its jurisdiction over authorizing the extradition of Dominicans wanted by that country, in response to a diplomatic protest after it refused to extradite Juan Alberto Astwood Burgos, accused of homicide in New York.

The United States Government’s complaint is contained in a communication ambassador Robert Fannin sent to SJC president Jorge Subero on June 20, to inform him of the protest. Fannin made Subero aware of the diplomatic protest 124, that his Government sent to the Dominican authorities through the Foreign Ministry, questioning the Penal Chamber’s judges’ interpretation of the 1909 extradition treaty, to reject Astwood’s extradition.

The United States authorities specifically questioned the judges’ interpretation of article V of the Treaty and ask to correct it and that it doesn’t happen again. “As Note 124 well explains, our position is that the Penal Chamber avoided the dispositions of the Treaty of Extradition of 1909 when making its decision, and at the same time we expect that the other sentences regarding Article V of the Treaty are in adherence to the spirit of reciprocity that governs our relations of extradition and to the terms of the Treaty of Extradition between our countries.”

In the missive Penal Chamber justices Hugo Alvarez Valencia, Julio Ibarra Rios, Dulce Maria de Goris, Edgar Hernandez Mejía and Victor Jose Castillo remind the ambassador that the American side hasn’t been fulfilled such reciprocity in the 100 years since the Treaty has been in effect.

SOURCE: elnacional.com.do