ROSENBERG CASE: JUSTICE COLLABORATOR PROVIDES NO NEW CASE INFORMATION

Guatemala, July 17, 2013. Yesterday, the Third Court of the First Criminal Instance for Criminal Matters, Drug Trafficking and Crimes against the Environment of Guatemala held a hearing at the Hospital of the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security (IGGS) of Zone 9, Guatemala City. At the hearing, the justice collaborator Mario Luis Paz Mejía (who has a terminal illness) gave testimony as part of the case concerning the murder of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg Marsano, which took place in May 2009.

CICIG hereby informs that Paz Mejía, convicted of murdering Khalil and Marjorie Musa (2009), is not the cornerstone of the accusation against the Valdés Paiz brothers.  In the statement and further information he provided before a competent judge, he did not make any accusations against the Valdés Paiz brothers, because within the pyramid structure of the gang, he had no contact with them, but only with other members (perpetrators) who contacted him.

Therefore, based on the statement provided yesterday, no mention was made in any way of the Valdés Paiz brothers nor was the probative truth changed.

Furthermore, other members of the gang of assassins and other evidence demonstrate the involvement of the Valdés Paiz brothers.  However, such questions such only be debated in a court of law and, as such, it should be the judges who rule on the matter.

CICIG hopes that due process is respected and justice is served in this and all other cases.

On August 8, 2011, Court B for High-Risk Matters sentenced Mario Luis Paz Mejía to 40 years in prison for the murder of Khalil Musa and his daughter, Marjorie Musa (on April 14 2009). The decision was final.