PROSECUTOR'S BUREAU FILES APPLICATION TO LIFT IMMUNITY AGAINST JUDGE PERALTA

Guatemala, March 26, 2012. Today, the Special Anti-impunity Prosecutor's Bureau (FECI) of the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) filed an application to lift immunity before the Eighth Court of the First Criminal Instance. The application was filed against Judge Mario Fernando Peralta Castañeda because of his role as the alleged perpetrator of the following crimes: illegal possession of a machine to recondition firearm ammunition; illegal possession of homemade firearms, arms with modified registration numbers, and arms with erased numbers or numbers not legally inscribed by the General Directorate of Arms and Ammunition Control (DIGECAM); illegal possession of ammunition; and illegal dumping of civilian or sports firearms.

The application to lift the judge's immunity comes following a number of expert opinions and other measures to determine the illegality of the seized arms and ammunition.

These steps were taken after arms and ammunition were discovered during a search at Peralta Castañeda's premises on August 12, 2011. At the search, Peralta Castañeda was arrested for allegedly participating in the illegal adoption procedure of the child Dafne Nayeli Camey Pérez (under the name Yajaira Noemí Muyus) for the purposes of adoption by a family from outside of Guatemala.

On the aforementioned date, Judge Peralta was ordered to be released by the Eighth Court of the First Criminal Instance on grounds of a lack of evidence. Therefore, the MP and CICIG (complementary prosecutor to the proceedings) appealed the court ruling before the Second Chamber of Criminal Appeals. However, the Chamber upheld the court's decision and thus, at the beginning of February this year, both the MP and CICIG filed an application for amparo before the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ). The amparo is still pending.

Peralta Castañeda is accused of criminal association, human trafficking, malfeasance of office, conspiracy, and denial of justice for his alleged involvement in a structure that sought to profit through the illegal adoption of the young girl.

The following persons are also being tried in this case: Iris Magaly Muyus, the lawyers María Beatriz Armas Galindo de Ortega and Juan Carlos Pinillos García, Susana María de la Asunción Luarca Saracho from the Asociación Primavera and César Augusto Galicia Prera from the Attorney General of the Nation's Office (PGN).