COURT UPHOLDS PRISON OF ACCUSED IN BUS NICARAGUA CASE

Guatemala, January 11, 2013. Today, Court B of the First Criminal Instance for High-risk Matters upheld the decision to keep Sara Elizabeth Cruz Mansilla in pre-trial custody. Cruz Mansilla, who is accused of criminal association in the Bus Nicaragua case, had requested that the detention measure be reassessed so as to be granted an alternative measure or released from custody.

In the decision, the Court, presided over by judge Irma Valdés Rodas, argued that the original circumstances that produced the pre-trial detention remained unchanged and that there was a risk of the accused absconding or blocking the truth.

Together with Cruz Mansilla, the following will also face justice: Marvin Montiel Marín (who lived with Cruz Mansilla), Mynor Aroldo Gutiérrez, Francisco Concoguá Martínez, Estuardo Mendoza, Yuman Garrido and Roberto Rivera Chacón. The start date of the trial is yet to be finalized as an amparo application filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) must firstly be ruled on, which could enable additional evidence to be accepted against the accused.

Background
On November 8, 2008, Montiel Marín, alleged drug trafficker in the Zacapa area, along with a group of hit men, intercepted a bus that was en route from Nicaragua with 16 passengers on board and took it to their ranch in Río Hondo. At the ranch, all the people travelling on the bus were murdered and then doused in gasoline and burned.