Italy: the torturer Reinhard Doring Falkenberg returns free due to a bureaucratic error and returns to Germany
The Ministry of Justice sent the extradition request for Reinhard Doring Falkenberg to the Florence Court of Appeal at 3.13 pm on Friday 19 November. But for two and a half days - from Friday afternoon until Monday morning - no one saw that e-mail arrived at the certified mail of the Court's protocol office. In fact, when the email arrives, the offices are already closed. Only on Monday at 8.08 the Court of Appeal, through a certified email sent by the protocol office, discovers that on Friday the Chilean authorities had sent the extradition request in time. It is that time frame of 41 hours, the bureaucratic error that ultimately led to the non-extradition of the German accused of having been one of the torturers of the Pinochet regime in the 1970s.
Reinhard Doring Falkenberg, 75, convicted in Chile for crimes committed during the Pinochet dictatorship, was arrested on the basis of an international arrest warrant in Forte dei Marmi on 22 September during a vacation in Italy. Chile had 60 days to submit an extradition request to Italy and the documents arrived on time, three days before the expiry of the precautionary measure. On November 18, the Court of Appeal of Florence, for health reasons, accepted the request for release for Doring Falkenberg and replaced the precautionary measure in prison with the obligation of daily presentation to the Lucca police headquarters. The measure would have expired on November 22 (at midnight) if the documents for extradition had not arrived but at the Lucca police headquarters, as reconstructed, when Doring shows up for the appointment they tell him that he is free from that moment. As per the report of the police headquarters at 1.45 pm, the termination of the obligation to sign is certified. So the German torturer thanks him and leaves, without knowing that - while he is preparing for his return to Germany - the Florentine magistrates were requesting the police arrest for him.
At 17.08 the third section of the Court of Appeal deposits the provision in the registry in which it is acknowledged that the request for extradition from Chile has arrived within the deadline, promptly transmitted by the Ministry of Justice in Florence, declares the continuation of the precautionary measure (obligation to sign) and the border police are ordered to prevent the German torturer from leaving Italian territory. At 5.25pm the order was sent to the Lucca police headquarters, but at that time, Reinhard Doring Falkenberg was already far away.
There is great embarrassment in the italian political world, while the president of the Court of Appeal Alessandro Nencini assures that the extradition procedure will continue its course, even if Doring has returned to Germany. Nicola Fratoianni, national secretary of the Italian Left, announces a parliamentary question to clarify what happened.
Source
#italy #chile #Pinochet #Reinhard-Doring-Falkenberg