Latest news with #murderer
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ex-marine convicted of killing three people released to US in prisoner swap
A Venezuelan American murderer and ex-US marine, who killed three people in Spain in 2016, was released to the US during last Friday's high-profile prisoner swap between the US, El Salvador and Venezuela, according to media and NGO reports. Dahud Hanid Ortiz, who was convicted last year in Venezuela of a triple homicide in Madrid, is one of the 10 US nationals that arrived in Texas last Friday. 'The United States welcomes home ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela,' Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said in a statement after the exchange. 'It is unacceptable that Venezuelan regime representatives arrested and jailed US nationals under highly questionable circumstances and without proper due process. Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.' Ortiz had been tried, convicted and sentenced last year in Venezuela of the murders. The White House did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment by time of publication. A state department spokesperson did not discuss specifics of Ortiz's case when asked by the Guardian. 'The United States had the opportunity to secure the release of all Americans detained in Venezuela, many of whom reported being subjected to torture and other harsh conditions,' the state department spokesperson said. 'For privacy reasons, I won't get into the details of any specific case.' Ortiz can be seen in two separate images, shared by a state department social media account. In one image, Ortiz is smiling and looking at the camera while sitting on a plane. Last week, the US state department, coordinating with the Salvadorian and Venezuelan governments, participated in a large-scale prisoner swap between the three countries. A total of 252 Venezuelans, previously detained in the US and expelled to a notorious Salvadorian prison under the Alien Enemies Act, were returned to Venezuela. In exchange, the US received 10 American nationals who were detained in Venezuela. Among them was Ortiz. The Venezuelan NGO, Foro Penal, which tracks the movement of political prisoners in the country, released a notice on Monday, mere days after the prisoner swap, confirming the release of the 10 American prisoners. But, in their statement, they clarified that only nine of the US nationals released were 'political prisoners'. 'One of the 10 Americans/residents, who were formerly detained, was not classified as a political prisoner, which is why we only documented nine formerly detained,' the organization wrote, alluding to Ortiz's case. Ortiz carried out a violent murder in Madrid, Spain, in 2016 which made international headlines. According to press reports, in a fit of jealousy, Ortiz drove from Germany to Spain to track down his ex-wife's new partner, Víctor Joel Salas, an attorney based in Madrid. Ortiz had previously threatened Salas, a Spanish newspaper reported. Ortiz entered Salas's office and instead found two women, employees of the law firm. He stabbed the two women and waited for Salas to enter the office. When a taxi driver and client of the law firm entered, Ortiz stabbed the man, set fire to the law firm's offices and fled. Salas arrived shortly thereafter and discovered the three bodies, El País reported. The ex-marine and Iraq war veteran quickly left Spain and arrived in Germany shortly after the murders. Spanish officials, who investigated the case, began an international manhunt to track him down, but due to bureaucratic holdups, German police were unable to arrest him. Ortiz fled to Colombia and crossed the border into Venezuela, where he was later caught by officials in 2018. Despite Spanish authorities' requests for Ortiz's extradition, Venezuela refused, deciding to try him for the murders there because he had been a Venezuelan citizen. In January 2024, he was sentenced by a Venezuelan court to 30 years in prison for the triple murder. This Friday, Ortiz was released to the US and arrived in Texas on a flight, welcomed with open arms by Trump administration officials. Salas, who was almost killed by Ortiz, told the Spanish TV program Vamos a Ver on Tuesday that he and the victims' families had been shocked by news of Ortiz's release. 'We all feel like we've been deceived, betrayed and let down,' he said. 'We feel deceived because Dahud Hanid Ortiz was never a political prisoner; he was a murderer who was convicted and sentenced by the Venezuelan authorities. The case record makes it quite clear that he's a criminal.' Salas also questioned how José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – the former Spanish prime minister and a mediator between Venezuela and the US – could have acted as he did knowing 'who it was that he was freeing'. He called on Zapatero and others who had been 'kind enough to free someone who murdered three people' to take all necessary action to 'undo this injustice'. The lawyer said he and the victims' families were afraid Ortiz could decide to return to Spain. 'The fear's always there,' he told the TV programme. 'The surprising thing in all this is that it was the German authorities who contacted me to say they were activating red alerts so that he's not allowed back into the Schengen area.' Salas renewed his criticism of the Spanish government in an interview with TeleMadrid, saying the authorities had neither informed him of the murderer's release, nor offered him protection. 'The message they're sending out is that anyone can come to Spain, kill three people – and get away with it,' he said. The lawyer added that 'the governments of Donald Trump and Maduro have just handed a killer his freedom – someone who's a real danger to society – without anyone bothering to provide a real explanation'. In March of this year, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act, declaring that the Tren de Aragua gang was invading the US at the behest of the Venezuelan government. Hundreds of Venezuelan men, accused of being gang members, were quickly expelled to El Salvador and detained in the notorious Cecot prison. The accusations that the men were all gang members was based on flimsy evidence by homeland security officials. After the quick and quiet expulsion to El Salvador, news organizations began revealing the identities of some of the men, including a gay Venezuelan makeup artist who was seeking asylum in the US. 'In the four months that the men were imprisoned in CECOT, the Trump administration repeatedly insisted that they were not under US custody,' said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy analyst with the American Immigration Council, in a blogpost. 'Rather, they claimed that El Salvador maintained sole custody over the men and the United States had no control over their fate.' Reichlin-Melnick points out that the prisoner swap undermines the US's past statements, especially with the state department taking credit over the exchange, saying the deal happened 'thanks to President Trump's leadership'. The American nationals detained in Venezuela made a quick stop in El Salvador before being flown into Texas. The 252 Venezuelan men detained by the US and El Salvador were flown to Venezuela. The American nationals released include Wilbert Joseph Castañeda, Jorge Marcelo Vargas, Lucas Hunter, Jonathan Pagan Gonzalez, Ronald Oribio Quintana, Erick Oribio Quintana, Fabian Buglione Reyes, Renzo Huamanchumo Castillo, Juan Jose Faria Bricen and Ortiz, per CNN. Although the nature of their arrests in Venezuela is not entirely known, one particular case stands out. Castañeda was detained by Venezuelan authorities in August 2024, along with two other Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen. Although the US government and his family have repeatedly claimed Castañeda was in Venezuela for a personal trip, the Venezuelan government accused the group of men of participating in a CIA-led plot to overthrow the government and assassinate the president, Nicolás Maduro. Records accessed by confirmed Castañeda was a Navy Seal at the time of his arrest. Earlier this month it was reported that the prisoner swap deal had been under way for some time, but that miscommunication between Trump administration officials botched it, the New York Times reported. The US government has engaged in a number of prisoner swaps with Venezuela in recent years. Under the Biden administration in 2022, the US swapped seven Americans in exchange for two of Maduro's nephews. In 2023, the Venezuelan government released 10 American nationals and a US-wanted fugitive, for the exchange of Alex Saab, a close Maduro ally and former US government informant. And earlier this year, Venezuela freed six Americans after a Trump administration envoy met with Maduro. Officials accused Ortiz of unsuccessfully attempting to pay Venezuelan authorities so that he could be included in the 2023 prisoner swap related to Saab, according to reporting from a Venezuelan newspaper.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Triple murderer among 10 inmates released back to the US as part of prisoner swap with Venezuela
A triple murderer was among the 10 prisoners sent back to the US as part of a deal between the State Department and Venezuela. Dahud Hanid Ortiz, 55, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in Caracas last year after he killed three people in Madrid in 2016. He was one of the American citizens flown to Texas on Friday as part of a deal between the White House and the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela. The Trump administration said the Americans had been political prisoners in the country, with Secretary Marco Rubio saying: 'Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.' But the Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal warned that one of them was a murderer, not a dissident, as reported by El Pais. It is not clear if Ortiz was transferred to a prison after landing in Texas last week. Daily Mail has reached out to the State Department for comment on this story. After the prisoner swap, Venezuelan regime leader Diosdado Cabello appeared to troll the US, saying: 'We handed over some murderers for you.' Ortiz was born in Venezuela, but became a naturalized US citizen after serving in Iraq. He was arrested in Caracas in 2018 after he fled Spain following the murders. Spanish police said Ortiz meant to kill his ex-wife's new boyfriend, lawyer Víctor Joel Salas, but instead killed the wrong man and two law clerks at a law firm. Salas told Spanish media he feels betrayed after Ortiz was sent to the US. 'Both my family and I feel deceived, betrayed, and frustrated,' he said. Venezuela on Friday released 10 jailed American citizens and permanent residents in exchange for scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Aside from Ortiz, the Americans were among dozens of people, including activists, opposition members and union leaders, that Venezuela's regime took into custody in its brutal campaign to crack down on dissent over the last year. 'Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement in which he thanked El Salvador president Nayib Bukele. Bukele said El Salvador had handed over all the Venezuelan nationals in its custody. Maritza Osorio Riverón was Ortiz' third victim. Spanish police said Ortiz meant to kill his ex-wife's new boyfriend but targeted the wrong man and two assistants at a law firm Central to the deal were more than 250 Venezuelan migrants freed by El Salvador, which in March agreed to a $6 million payment from the Trump administration to house them in its notorious prison. That arrangement drew immediate blowback when Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly remove the men that his administration had accused of belonging to the violent Tren de Aragua street gang, teeing up a legal fight that reached the Supreme Court. The administration did not provide evidence to back up those claims. The Venezuelans had been held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which was built to hold alleged gang members in Bukele's war on the country's gangs. Human rights groups have documented hundreds of deaths as well as cases of torture inside its walls. Photos and videos released by El Salvador's government on Friday showed shackled Venezuelans sitting in a fleet of buses and boarding planes surrounded by officers in riot gear. One man looked up and pointed toward the sky as he climbed aboard a plane, while another made an obscene gesture toward police. One of the men is reportedly Andry Hernández Romero, a makeup artist who fled Venezuela last year and was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at a border crossing in San Diego before eventually being flown to El Salvador. Maduro described Friday as 'a day of blessings and good news for Venezuela.' He called it 'the perfect day for Venezuela.' The release of the Venezuelans, meanwhile, is an invaluable win for Maduro as he presses his efforts to assert himself as president despite credible evidence that he lost reelection last year.
National Post
06-07-2025
- National Post
Convicted murderer Lori Bill Germa, 69, escapes from a prison in Quebec
Correctional Service Canada says a 69-year-old convicted murderer has escaped from a prison in Quebec's Laurentians area. Article content Staff discovered late Saturday that Lori Bill Germa was not present during an inmate count at the minimum-security unit of Archambault Institution, where he is serving a first-degree murder sentence. Article content Article content Article content Lory Bill Germa has escaped from Archambault Institution (minimum security) in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec. Anyone who has information is asked to contact the Sûreté du Québec. More information will follow. — Correctional Service (@CSC_SCC_en) July 6, 2025 Article content Germa is 5'10, weighs 166 pounds and is bald with light skin and brown eyes. Article content Article content He also has a tattoo of a sword with the name 'Carol' on one arm, and two seahorses and two dragons on the other. Article content Fellow inmate Richard Plourde escaped June 22 and was arrested by Quebec provincial police the following day. Article content
The Sun
04-07-2025
- The Sun
Murderer avoids deportation to Jamaica after judge said ‘he has an admirable work ethic'
A JAMAICAN murderer has won a human rights appeal to stay in the country after a judge said he has an "admirable work ethic". The unnamed killer has avoided deportation after an immigration court in Cardiff ruled key facts in the case had not been properly considered. 4 4 He mounted a legal fight for asylum in Britain after the Home Office attempted to deport him. The man - who has been in the UK since 1996 - lost an initial appeal against the decision to deny him asylum at a first-tier immigration tribunal. But his second appeal at the Upper Tribunal was successful, meaning the case is set to be heard again. A judgement explained that he committed murder, but details of the offence were not specified. He has been through "offender management" during his rehabilitation and now shows an "admirable work ethic". The man also argued that he "feared" deportation because he would be targeted by Jamaican crime syndicate One Order. He claimed that his family home had been attacked by the gang, who shot his brothers and forced his sister into witness protection. The Jamaican accused the judge at the First-tier Tribunal of not properly considering his concerns. Upper Tribunal Judge Sean O'Brien agreed that the man could be in danger if he were to return. He ruled that the First-tier Tribunal had "misunderstood" evidence given by the murderer and "overlooked" potential risks in Jamaica. Judge O'Brien added: 'The [First-tier Tribunal] judge had overlooked the fact that the core elements of the [Jamaican's] account were not challenged by [the Home Office]. "It had misunderstood [his] evidence about [his] family he claimed had been murdered because of gang retribution and when, and had given no apparent consideration to the attempts made to verify that [his] sister remained in Witness Protection. "I agree therefore that the judge's findings on the credibility of the [Jamaican's] account of events in Jamaica involved the making of an error of law. "All in all, I cannot be satisfied that the judge would necessarily have found that the [Jamaican] would not be at risk from the One Order Gang had she taken a permissible approach to credibility." The One Order gang mainly operates out of Spanish Town - an area on the Caribbean island regarded as a hotbed for criminal activity. It is the latest in a string of cases where offenders have called on Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), claiming they would face persecution if returned. The judgement said: "[The Jamaican said] the judge had failed to take into account that the key facts were not disputed by the Home Office. "The judge was wrong to find [him] vague in naming the One Order Gang as the source of risk. "The judge misunderstood which family members had been murdered and when. "The judge failed to take into account the steps taken by and on behalf of the [him] to confirm that [his] sister was in the Witness Protection Programme." It comes just months after an Albanian criminal was allowed to stay in Britain after arguing his son did not like foreign chicken nuggets. An immigration tribunal ruled it would have been "unduly harsh" for the child to be deported to Albania with his father due to his sensitivity around food as well other "additional" needs. Father Klevis Disha, 39, successfully appealed his deportation at a lower-tier immigration tribunal in which his son's distaste for foreign chicken nuggets was listed as the only example of his food difficulties. The case also focused on his son's needs in regards to sensory issues and difficulties communicating emotions. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick told the Telegraph it was "mind-boggling", "ludicrous" and "outrageous" that food had been used as an argument to prevent deportation. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp also slammed the decision, claiming foreign criminals are "exploiting human rights laws and weak judges". 4 4
The Independent
03-07-2025
- The Independent
Murderer who planned gun attack on prison officer given 10-year sentence
A convicted murderer who plotted a gun attack on a prison guard has been given a sentence of more than 10 years. Robert Paterson, 45, planned the attack in an act of 'revenge', believing the officer at HMP Edinburgh had put his life at risk with a delay in sending him to hospital after he swallowed seven bags of cocaine. The plot was foiled when police eavesdropped on conversations Paterson was having about the plan through 'covert' surveillance equipment they had installed in his cell in early 2023. At a sentencing hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, judge Lord Harrower explained the origins of Paterson's 'animus' towards the officer. The judge said that shortly before 2am on November 15, 2022, the officer heard Paterson 'scream he was having a heart attack' from inside his cell, and 'demanded' he be taken to hospital. He said the officer had seen Paterson swallowing a sim card he had just removed from a mobile phone, and staff at the prison were surprised to see an ambulance arrive when none of them had ordered it. Paterson's 'vital signs' were deemed healthy so he was kept in prison under observation for a few hours, before being taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh shortly before 8am. Lord Harrower added the officer had been 'aware' of an attempt by Paterson to escape when admitted to hospital in 2012, but said there was no indication the episode had been 'another attempt' to break out of jail. Once at hospital Paterson was given a CT scan, and underwent surgery to remove seven plastic bags of cocaine from his stomach. The judge told Paterson that following his return to prison he began to 'seek revenge' against the officer, believing he had been the cause of an 'unnecessary delay' in sending him to hospital. He set about obtaining a handgun and ammunition, and 'identified an individual who was prepared to carry out an assault' in return for 'drugs or money'. He also discussed procuring a vehicle and driver to be used in the assault. Thanks to the surveillance equipment police had installed in Paterson's cell, police got wind of the plan and 'intervened before an assault had been attempted'. Lord Harrower told Paterson: 'It is clear your proper purpose was conspiring to commit a serious crime.' Paterson's advocate Thomas Ross KC earlier told the court his client had reacted after deeming 'the manner in which the medical emergency was handled increased the risk of a fatal outcome'. On May 2 this year, Paterson pleaded guilty to directing others to carry out an assault, and obtaining for that purpose a handgun, ammunition and a vehicle. He also admitted directing and arranging the supply of drugs, and to directing others to steal drugs, watches and money. He is currently serving a life sentence for murder and is not due to become eligible for parole until 2027. Lord Harrower sentenced Paterson to 10-and-a-half years in prison for his latest offending, with the sentence to begin immediately. Paterson, who appeared in court dressed in a pale brown fleece, showed no reaction as the sentence was handed down. He nodded and waved to people in the public gallery as he was led from court. Speaking after the sentencing hearing, Scottish Prison Service chief executive Teresa Medhurst said: 'We welcome the significant custodial sentences passed today at Edinburgh High Court. 'As Lord Harrower rightly identified, the officer in this case acted 'entirely appropriately' and it is completely unacceptable that he, or any other member of SPS staff, be targeted in this way. 'The safety of our staff is absolutely paramount. We will continue to work closely with partners across the justice sector, to ensure that all necessary action is taken to protect those who play a vital role in keeping Scotland safe.'
