By EFE
Apr 13, 2024, 1:33 PM EDT
“It was my duty as a father to Jaime Saade respond to justice for the death of my daughter,” he said. Martin Mestre after extradition from Brazil, a country in which he hid for 30 years, for the murder of the young woman Nancy Mariana Mestrewhich occurred in January 1994 in Barranquilla.
In a press conference that the victim’s family offered a day after the convicted Saade was confined in the El Bosque prison in Barranquilla, Mestre explained How was the search for his daughter’s murderer in several countries? and another four years of difficult processes in judicial offices so that he would respond to Colombian justice.
“What I have done I don’t want to be interpreted as revenge, it is something much deeper. It was my duty as a father that led me to pursue the person responsible for the crime and seek justice,” reiterated Mestre, who thanked the Colombian authorities for their efforts.
The via crucis to achieve his extradition
When referring to the difficulties that arose for the extradition of Saade from Brazil, since nine months after his capture in 2020 The Superior Federal Court of that country denied his extradition to Colombia Because there was a tie in the vote of the magistrates, Mestre stated that “we never imagined that there were still several stations missing in this via crucis of our lives.”
“Martín, there is a little window,” he recalled what Margarita Sánchez, a lawyer who is a partner in a law firm in Washington, who offered her services to study reversing the adverse ruling, told him. He was also supported in this step by jurists Bruno Barreto from Brazil and Favio Humar from Colombia.
Explaining that, although Saade was initially sentenced to 27 years in prison, it is likely that he will only end up serving 16, lawyer Raúl Romero stated that “in this case the most important thing is Jaime Saade’s submission to justice.”
He indicated that in 2020 Saade’s defense managed to have the sentence reduced from 27 to 24 years in prisonapplying the principle of favorability for the convicted person because a modification of the law establishes a reduction for that type of crime.
“In addition, the Superior Federal Court of Brazil made it a condition for extradition that the crime of statutory rape (violent sexual assault in Colombian regulations) not be taken into account because according to the laws of that country it had already expired,” noted Romero.
30 years ago
Saade was sentenced in absentia for the rape and murder of Nancy Mestre18 years old, for the events that occurred on January 1, 1994 when he went to the young woman’s house and asked her parents for permission to take her to a New Year’s party.
Hours later, Nancy was taken to a clinic in Barranquilla with a gunshot wound to the head, completely naked and with traces of sand and plants on her body, and she died eight days later.
Since then Saade disappeared without giving any explanation to the authorities investigating the case. He fled to Brazil where he made a new life under the false identity of Enrique Dos Santos Abdala, starting a family with a wife and two children, until he was discovered and captured by Interpol in January 2020.
Keep reading:
– Jaime Saade, the murderer of a young woman who was found by the victim’s father after searching for decades, is extradited to Colombia.
– Nancy Mestre: Brazil approves the extradition to Colombia of Jaime Saade for the murder of the young woman almost 30 years ago.