WITNESS GIVES STATEMENT IN FRAIJANES II CASE

Guatemala, May 18, 2011. Oscar Mauricio Vásquez Ramírez, owner of the company Serdiconstru (which was awarded the contract to renovate the Fraijanes II prison in 2009), gave a statement today as early evidence at the Tenth Trial Court.

In his statement, Vásquez Ramírez confirmed that his company was used as a facade by businessmen Rodrigo Lainfiesta Rímola (released on bail) and his cousin Juan Diego Lainfiesta Cajas (fugitive) in order to access the GTQ 17.4 million allocated to renovating the prison. He said that in exchange for using his company's name, he received a Mitsubishi pickup truck as payment.

At the hearing, Vásquez charged that he had received threats and requested that these acts of intimidation be recorded on the statement of his testimony.

In this case, the former Minister of the Interior, Raúl Velásquez, is charged with abuse of authority and noncompliance of duties; he is currently awaiting the pre-trial hearing to open oral arguments, because the case judge is facing two different legal actions that were filed by the Lainfiesta family.

Prosecuted
In this case María de los Ángeles de León Mauricio was charged yesterday with money laundering. De León is a former partner of the company Construcciones y Servicios de Guatemala (Construsergua), which is linked to Lainfiesta and Lainfiesta Rímola.

The judge charged her with the aforementioned crime based on a suspicious transactions report issued by the Special Verification Intendence (IVE). Furthermore, de León was granted unsupervised house arrest.

The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) serves as a complementary prosecutor in the present criminal proceedings.