CICIG - The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala
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At the forum "Young and Committed", Commissioner Iván Velásquez called upon the youth to join forces in fighting impunity.

PRESS RELEASE 016

SUSANA LUARCA RETURNS TO PRISON

Guatemala, March 19, 2012. Today, the Fourth Court of the First Criminal Instance ordered that Susana María de la Asunción Luarca Saracho be imprisoned. Luarca Saracho is accused of leading a network involved in processing illegal adoptions.

The court executed the order of the Third Chamber of the Court of Appeals, whereby the alternative measures awarded to Luarca Saracho were revoked following an appeal filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and CICIG. In consequence, Luarca Saracho was ordered to return to prison—she has primary responsibility in the Primavera and Muyus cases, among others.

Luarca Saracho is accused of leading a network involved in processing illegal adoptions and was arrested at her home in May 2011. On July 21, 2011, CICIG filed an appeal against the order granting alternative measures passed on July 18, 2011 by the Fourth Court of the First Criminal Instance. In the appeal, CICIG argued that the imprisonment order should be upheld on the grounds that the Third Chamber of the Court of Criminal Appeals, by means of a ruling passed on April 19, 2011, had already REVOKED the alternative measures awarded to Luarca Saracho. Furthermore, in the appeal, it was indicated that reasonableness was lacking in the measures granted, because the involvement of the accused party in proceedings was not guaranteed and the economic surety was not proportional to the damages caused.

In this regard, the Third Chamber of the Court of Criminal Appeals, by means of the ruling of September 19, 2011, revoked on a second occasion the alternative measures granted. Today, this ruling was executed and hence the custody pending trial of the accused party was ordered.

Luarca Saracho is accused of criminal association, human trafficking for the purposes of illegal adoption, and the use of false documents.

The MP accuses Luarca Saracho of leading a criminal organization that works with the Asociación Primavera to process illegal adoptions. The accused had been released after the aforementioned court awarded her house arrest, issued a ne exeat order and ordered the payment of a GTQ150,000.00 bail.

In these proceedings, seven other people have been prosecuted for their alleged involvement in illegal adoptions.


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Voice of Diego Alvarez, CICIG Press Officer.
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  The Republic of Guatemala, a mountainous country that lies in the Central American isthmus, has an estimated population of 13 million people.
  Guatemala won its independence in 1821, following almost three centuries of Spanish colonial rule.
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