Panama to extradite ex-Mexican governor next week

Panama City [Panama]: Panama on Friday announced that they would extradite a former Mexican governor to Mexico on charges of corruption next week.

According to the Panama foreign ministry, as quoted by local media reports, Governor Roberto Borge would be flown back to Mexico City by next Thursday, which was confirmed by the Mexican embassy. The Mexican authorities will come to Panama and escort him back to the country in an official plane under heavy security.

The Government of Panama approved Borges’ extradition on December 15, allowing Mexico to pick him up within 30 days. Borges had earlier tried to slow the extradition process through legal challenges but lost his last appeal in Panama’s Supreme Court on December 11.

The former Mexican governor was arrested in June this year in Panama when he tried to board a flight to Paris. He is accused of selling state-owned real estate at one percent of its market value in Mexico. The charges against him include corruption, fraud, money laundering and involvement in organized crime.

Borge was the governor of Quintana Roo province of Mexico from 2011 to 2016, under the country’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). (ANI)