CHAMBER CONFIRMS LEGITIMACY OF STATEMENT GIVEN BY EFFECTIVE COOPERATOR IN THE FRAIJANES CASE

Guatemala, May 18, 2012. The Second Chamber of Criminal Appeals, Drug Trafficking and Crimes against the Environment rejected the three appeals filed by Rodrigo Lainfiesta Rímola, Siomara Maricela Ortíz and Juan Diego Lainfiesta Cajas—all of whom face charges in the Fraijanes case. The appeals sought to nullify the statement made by effective cooperator Oscar Mauricio Vásquez Ramírez.

The ruling passed down by the aforementioned Chamber supports the decision of the Tenth Judge of the First Criminal Instance, Walter Villatoro, and nullifies the decision of Judge Verónica Galicia, who, on her own initiative, had nullified the effective collaborator's statement while she was in charge of the proceeding.

Vásquez Ramírez—owner of the company Serdiconstru, which was awarded the contract to renovate the Fraijanes II Prison in 2009—gave evidence in advance of the proceeding at the Tenth Court of the First Criminal Instance on May 18, 2011. In his statement, he confirmed that his company was used as a front by Rodrigo Lainfiesta Rímola (released on bail) and his cousin Juan Diego Lainfiesta Cajas (rearrested in Costa Rica last Thursday) to access the 17.4 million quetzals earmarked for the renovation of the prison.

In this case, two former ministers have been charged and remanded in custody: Salvador Gándara Gaitán on charges of extortion, fraud, conspiring to commit fraud and conspiring to commit extortion; and Raúl Velázquez Ramos on charges of abuse of authority and noncompliance of duties.

CICIG acts as a complementary prosecutor in this criminal proceeding.