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At the forum "Young and Committed", Commissioner Iván Velásquez called upon the youth to join forces in fighting impunity.

PRESS RELEASE 050

ROSENBERG CASE: VALDÉS PAIZ STALL OPENING OF TRIAL PROCEEDINGS

Guatemala, September 2, 2013. The defense counsel of the brothers José Estuardo Valdés Paiz and Francisco José Ramón Valdés Paiz, who are accused of murder in the case of the lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano, stalled the opening of trial proceedings, after the Chamber of Criminal Appeals for Femicide Crimes accepted their provisional amparo appeal. As a result, the trial set for September 3 has been suspended.

The two accused persons filed the amparo appeal before the Chamber, arguing that the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) could not open the trial proceedings, because they did not have sufficient evidence to implicate them in the murder of Rosenberg. The parties were notified today of the decision of the Chamber.

The Chamber ruled that: "This Chamber, acting as a Court of Amparo, hereby rules to award the provisional amparo appeal based on the circumstances of the case. If a date had been set to open trial proceedings, we believe that, upon commencing, it would have been burdensome, and it would be impossible to restore things to their previous state."

This is the second appeal filed before this Chamber by the Valdés Paiz brothers with the aim of thwarting the opening of trial proceedings. The first appeal was rejected on the grounds that it had been incorrectly presented.

Diego Moreno Botrán, who is also an accused party in the same proceedings, was awarded a provisional amparo appeal by the same Chamber on August 12, 2013. Through said appeal, Botrán seeks to be severed from the proceedings. Diego Moreno Botrán and Nicolaid Rodolfo Ibarra Figueredo are set to stand trial on the charge of collusion (an agreement between individuals to prevent witnesses and parties from participating in a trial).

The Chamber set a deadline of 48 hours for the parties to state their opinions on the matter.

The filing of these appeals by the accused demonstrates their continued intention to hinder case progress. According to the report of the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman of April 12, 2013, the parties to proceedings used legal appeals, including 14 amparo appeals: 11 were filed by the accused (interchangeably), 2 by CICIG and 1 by another accused individual.

Background
On August 2, 2013, the judge of the Third Court of the First Criminal Instance, Óscar Sagastume, ruled that the evidence filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and CICIG was strong. As a result, the Court ordered that the Valdés Paiz brothers be sent to trial on the charge of complicity in murder. The brothers are currently free on bail after paying 500,000 quetzales.

On May 10, 2009, the attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano was murdered in Zone 14 of Guatemala City. Before being murdered, the attorney recorded a video in which he blamed then high-ranking government officials for his death. The investigation produced a different result to the suggestions made by the attorney.

On July 15, 2010, the Court of Criminal Sentencing sentenced nine individuals (perpetrators) to between 8 and 48 years in prison. The decision was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Justice on March 31, 2011.


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  The Republic of Guatemala, a mountainous country that lies in the Central American isthmus, has an estimated population of 13 million people.
  Guatemala won its independence in 1821, following almost three centuries of Spanish colonial rule.
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