SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE: CICIG CONTINUES IN RENAP CASE

Guatemala, February 2, 2012. This morning, the Supreme Court of Justice issued a judgment granting CICIG permission to continue to participate in the RENAP case as a complementary prosecutor.

CICIG filed a writ of amparo on October 5, 2011 against a ruling of the Second Chamber of the Court of Appeals for Criminal Matters confirming the decision of the judge of the Ninth Court of the First Criminal Instance. The latter had prevented CICIG from participating in the case as a complementary prosecutor.

The Supreme Court of Justice, in the judgment of January 25, 2012 granting the amparo application, declared that the Second Chamber, by confirming that CICIG would be barred from participating, "violated the constitutional rights of the Commission by prematurely delineating the illegal security forces and clandestine security organizations, prior to the corresponding stage of proceedings".

As set forth in the judgment, "by prematurely making declarations about the investigation of the illegal security forces and clandestine security organizations, the Second Chamber of the Court of Appeals for Criminal Matters] violated the rights claimed by the Commission in the writ of amparo, causing harm and preventing the Commission from fulfilling its objectives and functions".

This confirms the functions mandated in the CICIG agreement, which authorizes it to act as a complementary prosecutor in cases and support and strengthen the State of Guatemala institutions in the disbanding of illegal security forces and clandestine security organizations.