American Convicted of Murder Is Freed by Trump From Venezuela Prison
But one of the men released from the prison, an American Venezuelan dual national named Dahud Hanid Ortiz, had been convicted in Venezuela for the murder of three people in Spain in 2016, according to an official at the prosecutor's office in Madrid. The official asked not to be identified speaking publicly about the case.
Hanid Ortiz was sentenced in 2023 to 30 years in prison for a triple homicide committed in Madrid in 2016, according to Venezuelan court documents and Spanish news media coverage, which also indicate that Spain had tried to extradite him.
The Venezuelan Constitution prohibits the extradition of Venezuelan citizens, leading Hanid Ortiz to be tried inside Venezuela, which allows Venezuelans to be tried for crimes committed outside the country.
Two other people with knowledge of the case who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter also confirmed Hanid Ortiz's conviction and extraction from Venezuela by U.S. authorities.
Representatives from the State Department did not immediately respond to questions about why Hanid Ortiz was released and whether he was allowed to go free once he arrived in the United States.
The killings of the three people took place in the Usera neighborhood of Madrid, according to the court documents.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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