Murcia pleads habeas corpus

PANAMA. David Murcia Guzman was captured on November 19, 2008 and hastily extradited the next morning to Colombia.

The Colombian’s lawyers complained in a recent press conference at the Hotel Roma that in those few hours, he was not granted time to bid farewell to his pricey cars or to call his legal representatives. They hold that Panamanian authorities overlooked the due process and Murcia’s constitutional rights.

His attorneys are now going to plead habeas corpus before the Supreme Court of Justice, so a proper investigation can be held to evaluate whether the express detention and extradition of Murcia, currently in jail in Bogota, were violations to the businessman’s fundamental rights.

“It looks like a Guinness Record,” commented Diogenes Cordoba, one of Murcia’s lawyers, considering that an extradition process usually takes up to 60 days and the detained has a right to an appeal.

In Colombia, the fast actions by Panama’s government were well received. On November 20, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe publicly celebrated the collaboration of Panamanian president Martin Torrijos in Murcia’s capture.

he said that the night before they had both talked on the phone, and that he had taken the opportunity to thank him for “an agile implementation of Panamanian migration laws.”

Questions arise on whether the speed with which David Murcia Guzman was kicked out of Panama was a product of a personal request from the Colombian head of State to his Panamanian counterpart.

The National Migration Service resolution which ordered returning Murcia to his country of origin was dated November 19 2008, but some skeptics says it was actually written once Murcia was already on Colombian soil.

The Migration office states Panama has the right of sending back any foreigner without previous notice.