The Supreme Court of Chile on Monday rejected a request from the US for the extradition of Carlos Cardoen Cornejo. The Chilean businessman is being accused of illegally exporting Zirconium metal between August 1982 and October 1989. This metal was allegedly used for manufacturing cluster bombs, which were used by the Iraqi airforce against Iran.

The US Department of Justice had indicted Cardoen in 1993. Following this, Interpol had issued an international arrest warrant. The embassy of the US requested the arrest of Cardoen for the purposes of extradition on March 21, 2019, and a formal extradition request was filed on June 14, 2019. However, this request was rejected in March 6 of this year. This decision was appealed and the court pronounced the final judgment on Monday. The court found out that the appeal failed to meet the two requirements of the typicity of the crime and double criminality. The court further held that more than 26 years have passed and not a single activity could be established that can be equated with the legal requirement of “directing the procedure against the offender.” The court stated:

It should be noted that, until the receipt of the diplomatic note in this regard, almost 26 years elapsed, without it having been proven that the process followed against him had not been paralyzed for a period of 3 years. It goes without saying that the article 96 of the Penal Code establishes that, “… if his prosecution is paralyzed for three years or is terminated without conviction, the prescription continues as if it had not been interrupted“, the steps taken to obtain his international capture are not relevant for this purpose through Interpol, since they are not related to the actual prosecution of the criminal case against him and respond to the arrest warrant issued on May 26, 1993.

After the decision, Cardoen said on a TV broadcast, “With great joy and deep humility I want to thank the Supreme Court of Chile for having rejected the request for extradition from the North American government, making justice after 30 years of persecution which never had legal reasons.”