Jose Nelson Brandao: “If they extradite Mr. Galo Lara, he will be killed”

After the Panamanian government granted extradition for former legislator Tito Galo Lara to respond in Ecuador on charges of multiple homicides, his lawyer Jose Nelson Brandao said that if his client gets to be extradited, he will be killed upon arrival to the country.

“If Mr. Galo Lara gets extradited he will be killed and that will be a responsibility to be carried upon the shoulders of the last Panamanian government and this government (…) they will have to answer for the life of a human being,” said Brandao on an interview with RPC Radio.

The Panamanian government estimated on last August 21, “the extradition request as valid” submitted by Ecuador, after a ruling by the Supreme Court of Panama, which denied the warning of unconstitutionality filed by lawyers for Lara against extradition process.

Lara’s lawyers now have 15 days from August 21 to appeal. “We will now show through our evidence, the lack of criminal nature of the charges brought against Mr. Lara and the certainty that this is political persecution,” said Brandao.

Galo Lara, 46, is incarcerated in Panama, which granted him asylum in 2013 after fleeing Ecuador following a sentence of 10 years in prison for complicity in the murder of three family members.

Galo Lara