PRESS RELEASE 001
CICIG FILES COMPLAINT BEFORE THE PUBLIC PROSECUTORS OFFICE AGAINST JUDGE VALENZUELA
Guatemala, 3 June 2009. The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, CICIG, filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office against Judge Leticia Valenzuela for her decision that expelled CICIG from the case against former President Alfonso Portillo.
Through the complaint, CICIG requested that the Public Prosecutor’s Office petition the Supreme Court to initiate preliminary proceedings to lift the Judge’s immunity so that she can be prosecuted as a private citizen. CICIG will try to enter the case against the Judge as a complementary prosecutor in an opportune moment.
The basis for the complaint is that the Judge may have committed the crimes of corruption and obstruction of justice when she did not apply valid procedural norms, which she is obligated to do and emitted an un-justified decision.
The judicial resolution is plainly unjust as the Judge deliberately excluded CICIG without argument, motivation or giving the Commission the opportunity to present its arguments in a preliminary hearing or put forward incriminatory evidence against the defendant, and only provided a one-line explanation that the case contains no signs of illegal groups.
It is obvious that the Judge exceeded her functional authority because she made a prejudgment regarding whether the facts of the case display characteristics of clandestine or illegal security groups, an issue that should be determined in trial. Moreover, the investigation against Alfonso Portillo yielded strong indications that the alleged embezzlement involved the activities of an illegal criminal group.
It appears that in her decision, Judge Valenzuela followed the defendant’s reasoning and reveals a suspicious bias.
CICIG’s mandate is clear: TO ASSIST THE STATE IN THE PROSECUTION, PUNISHMENT AND DISMANTLING OF ILLEGAL SECURITY GROUPS AND CLANDESTINE SECURITY ORGANIZATIONS.
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