PRESS RELEASE 081
JUDGE PERALTA TO STAND TRIAL
Guatemala, October 16, 2012. Gisela Reynoso, judge of the Fourth Court of the First Criminal Instance, ordered the opening of oral arguments against Mario Fernando Peralta Castañeda, judge of children and adolescents and adolescents in conflict with the law in the department of Escuintla. Peralta Castañeda faces charges of human trafficking, malfeasance of office, criminal association and denial of justice for his involvement in the protection proceedings for the child Angely Liseth Hernández Rodríguez. In the proceedings for Hernández Rodríguez, Judge Peralta declared the child's abandonment, her definitive shelter at the Asociación Primavera children's home and her inclusion in one of the home's adoption programs.
At the hearing, the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) presented evidence against Peralta demonstrating his involvement in facilitating the recruitment, receipt, harboring and transfer of the child for the Asociación Primavera. The MP also referred to Peralta's part in the court orders issued during the protection proceedings, which the MP and CICIG allege were issued in breach of the law and were based on spurious facts.
Judge Reynoso accepted the evidence offered, ordering the opening of oral proceedings as a human trafficking case.
Furthermore, Reynoso confirmed CICIG's definitive participation as a complementary prosecutor.
Background
The child Angely Liseth Hernández Rodríguez was taken on November 3, 2006 from the patio of her house, located in the municipality of San Miguel Petapa in the department of Guatemala City. At a later stage, through the Asociación Primavera, the so-called mother used false papers to hand the child over, under the name Karen Abigail López García, to an adoptive family from outside of Guatemala.