Sebastián Yunda Yunda is prosecuted for the crime of illicit association in Ecuador and was arrested in Argentina due to a red notice from Interpol.
A confidentiality clause prevents Sebastián Yunda’s lawyers in Ecuador from giving any details of the detention that the son of the dismissed mayor Jorge Yunda lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. What if it is known, it is that the Ecuadorian defense is in contact, from the same The last Wednesday that the arrest took place, with lawyers from Argentina who took up the case.
The news that the eldest son of the former mayor of Quito was located and detained in Argentina was given by the Ministry of Government of Ecuador through a statement issued last Wednesday afternoon.
Yunda Yunda was wanted in 194 countries of the world through a red notice published on November 12, in Interpol (International Police) records, at the request of the Pichincha criminal judge Máximo Ortega, who is handling the case for illicit association in which Sebastián and seven other people are investigated.
Cell phones of Jorge Yunda and Sebastián Yunda will be appraised within the process for illicit association
A cooperation between the Ecuadorian Police and the Argentine Federal Police first allowed the location and then the arrest of the leader of the musical band 4AM.
No details of the operation have been given, but it has been known that the action against Sebastián Yunda occurred before he entered a hospital in Buenos Aires, where he had taken an appointment to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Yunda would remain in custody under the orders of a Buenos Aires Correctional Court.
The president of the National Court of Justice (CNJ), Iván Saquicela, confirmed that he has already been notified by the Interpol regarding the arrest and will now notify the judge of the case, that is, Máximo Ortega, who in turn will be the one who must request the extradition of Sebastián Yunda to the president of the CNJ. Only then did Saquicela assume jurisdiction for the issue of extradition.
The Ministry of Government indicated in its statement that the process of transferring Sebastián Yunda has begun and it was anticipated that the detainee could arrive in the country within “a few weeks.”
Argentine legislation would contemplate that a person cannot be detained for more than 60 days, but for Saquicela that would be enough time to justify documented that there is a criminal process, an investigated crime and the requirement of a competent judge with the order of preventive prison.
Criminal lawyers consulted believe that the process will delay, since the red notice is not an international arrest warrant but only a search notice. What would correspond is that the Ecuadorian justice send a request to Argentina with the justification of the case so that Sebastián Yunda is extradited and at that time an extradition process will begin that would include hearings and end with a decision of the requested State.
According to Interpol, a red notice is a request to law enforcement agencies around the world to locate and provisionally detain a person pending extradition, surrender or similar action. This international organization clarifies that a red notification is an international notice about wanted persons, but it is not an international arrest warrant.
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Sebastián Yunda was linked together with his uncle César Yunda to the investigation for the crime of illicit association on September 20. The links came only days after a prosecution investigation began against Christian Hernández, Jorge Yunda’s former adviser; Cinthya Puga, already at that time former chief of staff for Mayor Yunda; Adrián Haro, former manager of the company metropolitan public EMSeguridad; event maker Pamela Novoa; businesswoman Nancy Gaibor and her husband, Chinese-Ecuadorian businessman Yinlong Wang.
The eight defendants are accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of being part of a structure that had access to privileged information and benefited from money from contracts that would be related to the Municipality of Quito, during the Yunda administration.
Jorge Yunda’s eldest son was initially ordered as a precautionary measure to appear periodically. Sebastián Yunda, through his lawyers, said that he would return to the country to comply with the measure, but that did not happen. Faced with non-compliance, the Prosecutor’s Office requested the review of the periodic presentation and the change to a preventive detention order.
My beloved son has not stolen a single penny, the hatred and human misery of a political class that is dismissing the country persecute us, with me what I want not with the family, miserable!
– Jorge Yunda Machado (@LoroHomero) December 2, 2021
Against this background, on October 11 last, Ortega ordered his preventive detention and not only ordered the Judicial Police to search for Sebastián Yunda, but also included that Interpol be asked to join the monitoring. On October 20, Judge Ortega formally requested Interpol to issue the red notice and on November 12 that instance confirmed that Sebastián Yunda’s name was published in its records.
Yunda son left the country from the José Joaquín de Olmedo airport, in Guayaquil, on an airline flight Cup bound for Panama, on March 21, and then Interpol had information that he had entered Bolivia.
The former Undersecretary of Foreign Relations Carlos Estarellas understands that if the Argentine authorities collaborate, the transfer to Sebastián Yunda’s Ecuador would be fast and thus the Ecuadorian justice system would advance with the criminal prosecution that exists. When asked if an asylum request to Argentina could delay Yunda’s transfer to Ecuador, the expert on international issues explained that this fact would not proceed since Sebastián Yunda is not a politically persecuted person, but someone who is prosecuted for a common crime.
Former mayor Jorge Yunda, on the other hand, believes that “a political class” in the country is persecuting him and his son. After learning of the arrest in Argentina, on his personal Twitter account Yunda wrote that his “beloved son” has not stolen “not a single penny”, and warned that with him what he wants, but with the family not, “miserable”. (I)
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