The court upheld the defendant's appeal for protection, in a decision published Saturday in the Official State Bulletin (BOE) and cited by the Efe news agency.
In the decision, the court considers that the decision of the Audiencia Nacional, the Spanish court that decides on extradition requests, violated his rights to effective judicial protection and to a process with all the guarantees.
The Angolan authorities have demanded the extradition of Carlos Aires da Fonseca Panzo, saying he received "bribes or kickbacks" from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
Carlos Panzo is being investigated following a complaint that, according to the Angolan press, he allegedly received commissions totaling 11 million dollars, paid by a Brazilian company, Odebrecht, in several tranches, through a Swiss bank account.
According to Angola's complaint, Odebrecht "obtained the award of important public contracts thanks to the creation of 'black funds', with which it compensated, with bribes, politicians and former directors of state and parastatal companies in the countries where it was active".
Although extradition was initially rejected, the National Court eventually accepted it, at the request of the Public Ministry, after considering that the requirements for extradition were met, since the facts for which he was wanted in his country could constitute, in Spain, crimes of passive bribery, against the public treasury, and money laundering.
Carlos Panzo, detained in Marbella in September 2019, appealed to the Constitutional Court, which has now given him reason.
The body considered that the decision to extradite Panzo to Angola does not "satisfy the norms of independence of the executive power," indicating that the National Hearing accepted "from the Angolan authorities, as support for the extradition request, a document from the public prosecutor without true judicial endorsement," thus incurring "a deficit" in the protection of the defendant's right to freedom.
The Angolan Public Prosecutor's Office opened a case against Carlos Panzo in November 2017, seeking to clarify "a complaint about criminally punishable facts" under international law.
