MUSA CASE: PROCEDURAL AWARDS AND FIRST JUDGEMENT

Guatemala, April 26, 2011. Today, at a hearing to rule on the award of benefits to the justice collaborators in the Musa case, the Eighth Trial Court for Criminal Matters, Drug Trafficking and Crimes Against the Environment ordered the conditional suspension of the criminal prosecution of effective collaborators Lucas Santiago López and Adelino Morales Pérez—accused of murdering Khalil Musa and Marjorie Musa on April 14, 2009.

This implies that the Judge deemed that the information provided by the justice collaborators had been useful and important in shedding light on the facts. Furthermore, strict, two-year rules were imposed, prohibiting them from leaving the country, carrying firearms or communicating with other members of the criminal group. They were also ordered to return all assets acquired through the crime.

The Judge convicted Morales Pérez of criminal association and issued the five-year prison sentence requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and CICIG. Santiago López continues to serve a 38-year prison sentence, which was upheld on appeal, in the Rosenberg case.