After 17 years of being released from prison and leaving the country, businessman Carlos Ahumada Kurtz arrived in Mexico after being extradited by Argentina on fraud charges from two decades ago.
The Aeromexico commercial plane that transported him arrived at Terminal 2 of Mexico City International Airport (AICM) at 5:16 a.m., according to the airline’s website.
The flight lasted about nine hours, after departing yesterday from Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires.
Escorted by two agents of the Federal Ministerial Police, Ahumada was taken to the hangar of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) so that a medical examiner can perform a check-up on his health. He will then be placed at the disposition of the Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office, the agency that is handling his case.
“Once these formalities are completed, he must be completely free and I will demand it because he is under federal suspension.
“He should go home,” Enrique Ostos, the businessman’s lawyer, said this morning at the AICM.
His defense reiterated that Ahumada cannot be detained on the basis of an order other than the one that motivated his extradition and that he has a suspension of the re-arrest order that had been issued against him.
Ostos estimated that two hours after his arrival, his client should go home after signing a document that sets out arguments regarding the statute of limitations for the crimes against him.
The lawyer said that his client did not oppose being extradited and wants to resolve his case with respect for his guarantees, so around 9:00 a.m. on July 16, part of the defense will go to the Judge of Execution of Criminal Sanctions Number 2 to request an incidental hearing and the judge will decide whether to cancel the criminal case and the conviction for fraud.
“He does not have to go (to court today),” Ostos said.
“We are asking the judge to schedule a hearing for us as soon as possible. It is an incidental hearing, it is a debate where the Public Prosecutor’s Office will make its arguments, the defense will do the same, and the judge at that hearing will have to decide on the admissibility of the statute of limitations,” he added to reporters.
In 2004, Carlos Ahumada sparked the video scandals that led to the imprisonment of close collaborators of the then Head of Government Andrés Manuel López Obrador, such as René Bejarano and Gustavo Ponce, whom he exposed receiving cash, as well as Carlos Ímaz, then husband of the now virtual President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum.
Pending penalty
Carlos Ahumada was required for extradition to serve a sentence of 2 years and 11 months in prison, which he still has to serve, for fraud in contracts awarded by the then Gustavo A. Madero and Tláhuac Delegations, in contracts totaling 60 million 755 thousand 142.36 pesos.
On September 19, 2007, the then Superior Court of Justice of the Federal District (TSJDF) sentenced him to 5 years in prison, a fine of 22,620 pesos, payment of damages of 375,712 pesos and compensation for damages of 28,246,665 pesos, for the crimes of generic fraud and continued generic fraud.
In this case, he was found guilty of defrauding the then Gustavo A. Madero and Tláhuac Delegations, the first for a contract of 31 million 285 thousand 164.68 pesos and the second for another of 29 million 469 thousand 977.68 pesos.
The businessman was imprisoned for 3 years and 10 days in the Reclusorio Norte and was released on May 8, 2007, precisely because the then 12th Criminal Judge of the DF, Alberto Ruvalcaba Ramírez, acquitted him of this case due to lack of evidence.
The capital’s prosecutor’s office appealed and four months later succeeded in getting the TSJDF to revoke the acquittal, imposing the aforementioned sentence; however, by then Ahumada was no longer in the country.
Ahumada lost his appeal against the conviction, but – according to his defense – he managed to have the payment for compensation for the damages invalidated.
On October 20, 2019, the Twelfth Criminal Court of Mexico City ordered his re-arrest in this criminal case, given that he would have to serve one year, 11 months and 20 days of his sentence in prison.
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