Spain's High Court rejected on Monday US extradition request for Hugo Carvajal, a former general and close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Speaking at the extradition hearing last week, Carvajal said that he no longer trusted either side - the US and Venezuela.
“I feel I am threatened in both countries (the United States and Venezuela),” he told the High Court at his extradition hearing. “I don’t trust the US judiciary after what they did to me.”
Hugo Carvajal was arrested in April and jailed the next day at the request of the United States on drug trafficking charges.
Though the police haven't disclosed the charges brought against Carvajal, in 2008 he was sanctioned by the US Treasury for "materially assisting the narcotics trafficking activities" of Colombia's FARC rebel group.
Carvajal was already arrested at the request of the US in 2014 when he served as a Venezuelan consul general in Aruba, the Netherlands' island in the Caribbean.
Carvajal was a trusted advisor to former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and served as military intelligence chief in 2004-2011 and 2013-2014.
