[NYTr] Bolivia Close to Extraditing Former Prez

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Ex Bolivian Prez's Extradition in Final Stage

      La Paz, Oct 14 (Prensa Latina) The extradition of ex Bolivian
President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, exiled in the United States, went
into a decisive stage, assured on Sunday the lawyer representing the
victims of October 2003's repression.

         Rogelio Mayta, who is investigating the case, explained to
Prensa Latina that the presentation of evidence, of the so-called
"Black October," is over and now they are waiting for the Attorney
General's charges for genocide.

         This same authority should have to determine if any of the
people accused remain out of the process or if they all have to go to
trial, referring to Carlos Sanchez and Jorge Berindoague, ex Defense
and Hydrocarbon Ministers, respectively, considered Sanchez de Lozada's
accomplices.

         According to Mayta's report, there are enough pieces of
circumstantial evidence to accuse other 17 officials in that region of
military repression that four years ago killed 67 and wounded over 400
persons.

         On October 17, 2003, a people s uprising made Sanchez de
Lozada resign and run away from the country and take refuge in
Washington, along with his closest collaborators.

         The extradition process of those authorities in Bolivia had
suffered many inconveniences.

         It is calculated that the trial could begin on December, 2007
and the sentences will become public on June, 2008.

         The Bolivian government has said several times that George W.
Bush's administration hinders the judicial and extradition process
followed against the ex dignitary.