PRISON CONFIRMED AGAINST LAWYER ACCUSED OF ILLEGAL ADOPTION

Guatemala, May 31, 2013. Today, Trial Court B for High-Risk Matters upheld the decision to remand lawyer Raúl Ticún Urías in custody for his involvement in the illegal adoption of the child Angely Liseth Hernández Rodríguez. Ticún Urías is charged with human trafficking, criminal association and using false documents.

At the hearing to review coercive measures, the Court rejected the request made by the accused, because it deemed there to be a risk of flight and risk of the ascertainment of truth being obstructed. Ticún Urías sought to be released on alternative measures.

The Court set October 31 as the start date for the trail of the lawyer and eight other individuals, including Mario Fernando Peralta Castañeda.

CICIG acts as a complementary prosecutor in these criminal proceedings.

Background facts
Ticún Urías, as judicial representative of US citizens Timothy James Monahan and Jennifer Lyn Vanhorn Monahan, facilitated and fostered the notarial adoption procedure of Angely Liseth Hernández Rodríguez in 2008 (who was falsely identified as Karen Abigail López García). Furthermore, he appeared before the General Directorate of Migration to process the passport of the child so that she could be transported to the United States, where she currently resides.

Angely Hernández was taken on November 3, 2006 from the patio of her house, located in the town of San Miguel Petapa in the department of Guatemala City.