CHAMBER CONFIRMS CRIME OF EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING IN CASE OF PNC POLICE CHIEF

Guatemala, April 2, 2013. The Third Chamber of the Court of Criminal Appeals ratified the decision to charge Pedro González Rodríguez with extrajudicial killing. González Rodríguez, former head of the Special Forces (DIFEP), is charged with killing Antonio Beb Ac, a peasant farmer, during an eviction operation on March 15, 2011 in the department of Alta Verapaz (Polochic Case).

The Chamber's decision comes in response to an amparo application filed by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP). The writ of amparo addresses the actions taken on June 8, 2012 by Judge Carol Patricia Flores Polanco, head of Court A of the First Instance for High-risk Matters, to alter the extrajudicial killing charge to one of culpable homicide.

With this new decision of the Chamber, the judge must now set a date to hold a hearing with the parties to alter the charge.

BACKGROUND:
On March 15, 2011, an eviction operation was conducted at the Miralvalle property in Valle de Panzós (Alta Verapaz), at the behest of the Court of the First Instance for Criminal Matters of Cobán. The court had previously received a criminal complaint from the legal representatives of the Chabil Utzaj Sugar Refinery, which alleged the peasant communities in the area had committed aggravated usurpation.

The eviction was conducted by the Municipal Office of the Public Prosecutor of La Tinta, department of Alta Verapaz, along with units from the Directorate of Special Forces (DIFEP) of the National Civil Police (PNC), which were led by the Police Chief Pedro González Rodríguez. During the eviction process, Antonio Beb Ac died after being hit in the upper part of the skull by a tear gas bomb which was inappropriately thrown directly at him.

CICIG participates as a complementary prosecutor in the case and pursuant to its mandate it may participate whenever there is evidence of State agents creating impunity. (Art. 1, Subparagraph d: [Groups that are] linked directly or indirectly with agents of the State or have the capacity to generate impunity for their illegal actions).