FORMER ADVISOR TO MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR CONVICTED

Guatemala, May 4, 2011. The Ninth Trial Court sentenced José Aníbal Hernández Nova, an advisor to the Ministry of the Interior during the Raúl Velásquez administration, to 10 years in prison and ordered the payment of a GTQ 205,000 fine, after finding him guilty of extortion and laundering GTQ 39.4 million that had been allocated to purchasing fuel for the National Civil Police (PNC) in 2009.

Furthermore, the Ninth Court ordered that the former advisor be disqualified from holding public office and his political rights suspended. The three judges deemed that the involvement of Hernández Nova had be proven by the evidence of witnesses, documents, expert opinions and technical reports filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which acted as a complementary prosecutor in the proceedings.

The Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) accused Hernández Nova of being the intermediary who helped Maskana, S.A obtain the GTQ 39.4 million contract to provide the PNC with fuel. However, part of the funds was used for other illegal activities and the former advisor was paid a commission of GTQ 25 million.

In the same case, the former PNC Director, Baltazar Gómez Barrios, and the former Deputy General of PNC Logistical Support, Héctor Israel Lapoyeu López, were convicted in August 2010. Moreover, the pre-trial hearing to open oral arguments of the former Minister of the Interior, Raúl Velásquez, is scheduled for May 16. Velásquez is charged with money laundering, extortion and tax fraud.