PRESS RELEASE 031
FORMER RENAP OFFICIALS MUST BE SENT TO PRISON
Guatemala, May 16, 2012. José Mauricio Radford Hernández, Francisco José Jiménez Irungaray, Ángel Gelir Rodríguez Tello and Calvin Augusto Illescas González—accused parties in the Renap case—must be sent to prison after the Supreme Court of Justice conclusively supported the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP). The MP had filled an application for amparo to reverse the decision made by the Second Chamber of the Court of Appeals that released the accused parties.
Radford Hernández, Jiménez Irungaray and Rodríguez Tello (former members of the Board of Directors of Renap [the National Register of Persons]) and Illescas González (Renap representative before the Board of Tender) lodged an appeal at the Second Chamber against the ruling passed by the Nineth Court of the First Criminal Instance—the court overseeing the proceeding. The ruling, passed on February 18, 2011, ordered that the parties be remanded in custody and declared the non-appearance of the accused parties and the Defence's abandonment of the case for their failure to attend the preliminary hearing on February 8, 2012.
The four accused parties are linked to proceedings for non-compliance of duties and abuse of authority for innapropriately awarding a contract to issue the Personal Identification Document (DPI), worth GTQ868,195,836.30, to the company Easy Marketing in 2008.
During the procurement process, the members of the Renap Board and the Board of Tender favored Easy Marketing—a company that did not provide financial statements and balance sheets for the three years prior to the contract award because it had only been founded one year earlier. Furthermore, it did not have the experience or backing necessary for a contract such as that which is was awarded. The compnay was created with a capital of 5000 quetzales and the contract awarded was worth GTQ868,000,000.
The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) acts as a complementary prosecutor in this criminal proceeding.
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