MP REQUESTS MAXIMUM SENTENCES FOR VÍCTOR RIVERA MURDER

Guatemala, May 5, 2011. The Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) requested sentences of between 11 and 149 years in prison for each of the ten individuals accused of murdering the former advisor to the Ministry of the Interior, Víctor Rivera, on April 7, 2008 on Bulevar Vista Hermosa (Zone 15, Guatemala City).

In the final arguments phase of the trial, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested that judges of the First High-Risk Trial Court sentence Aurelio Ruiz, César Augusto Paiz Córdova, Juan Antonio Vásquez, Israel Bethancourt Vela and Nelson Oswaldo Milián Girón to 50 years in prison for murder, 33 years for attempted murder, and 8 years for criminal association.

The MP also requested that Vásquez be sentenced to 8 years in prison for conspiracy to obstruct justice; Milián Girón and Bethancourt Vela to 8 years in prison for illegal modification of firearms as well as requesting a further 50 years in prison for Bethancourt Vela for conspiracy to murder.

The MP requested that Santiago Enrique Sis García be sentenced to 30 years in prison for extra-judicial killing, 20 years for attempted extra-judicial killing and 8 years for criminal association; for Marleny Judith Sosa y Sosa, 8 years for conspiracy to obstruct justice and 8 years for criminal association; and for Walter Ivanovich Monroy Cruz, 8 years for conspiracy to obstruct justice, 8 years for criminal association and 6 years for falsification of documents.

For Cruz Magdaleno Reyes García, 8 years in prison for conspiracy to obstruct justice, 8 years for criminal association, and 10 years for illegal possession of firearms; and for Rubén Estuardo Rosales Sánchez, 8 years in prison for obstruction of justice and 3 years for impeding clarification of events.

The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) participates in the proceedings as a technical consultant, pursuant to an agreement signed between the Government of Guatemala and the UN, which stipulates that CICIG must support the MP in criminal prosecutions. CICIG may comply with this stipulation as a technical consultant or as a complementary prosecutor, as set forth in Article 3, Point 1 of Subparagraph c of the Agreement.