COURT ORDERS JUDGE TO RULE IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW

Guatemala, May 17, 2012. The First Chamber of Appeals ordered Judge Carol Patricia Flores of the Court A of the First Criminal Instance for High-Risk Matters to stay on charges of criminal association and passive bribery against former Deputy Director of the Prison System Vidal Efraín Requena Mazariegos rather than definitively dismissing them. Requena Mazariegos is accused of money laundering—in the Amatitlán case—for his alleged ties to an organization involved in drug trafficking and murder.

The Chamber's ruling stems from the appeal lodged by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) against the ruling issued by the judge. On March 27, 2012, at the preliminary hearing against the former deputy director, the judge sought to close off any possibility of the investigating body or CICIG continuing to investigate the criminal association and passive charges against Requena Mazariegos. On that date, the judge ruled to send the former deputy director to trial only on the charge of money laundering.

The Chamber deemed that, in the present case, there are no grounds on which to call for the dismissal of the two charges, and thus ordered that the judge annul the previous ruling and rule in accordance with the law.

The Amatitlán case concerns an armed confrontation that took place on April 24, 2009 between Police officers and alleged drug traffickers. Five National Civil Police officers died as a result of the confrontation. At a later stage, authorities seized 370 kg of cocaine and a large arsenal of weapons from the site.