translated from Spanish: 4 military implicated in presumed Huachicoleo missing hearing

The four senior military officers implicated in an investigation by the Attorney-General’s Office (FGR) for their alleged complicity in fuel theft missed the criminal hearing convened on Friday 17 May by a federal judge of the South prison, in the which the allegations and charges against him would be presented; The hearing had to be deferred for next May 31st.
Among those missing is Brigadier General Eduardo León Trauwitz, the highest-ranking military officer involved in the case and who served as Deputy Director of strategic safeguard for Pemex in the past six-day term. Neither did any defense counsel on his part nor did he send proof. For this reason, Judge Maria Elena Cardona decided to fine it with 8400 pesos and to warn that in case of a new insistence it could be stopped.
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The others who were absent were general Socrates Alfredo Herrera and Colonel Emilio Cosgaya Rodriguez, who through their lawyers justified their absence indicating that their health “has been affected by the media pressure” that has generated the case, Although only Socrates presented medical evidence. Cosgaya’s lawyer said that his defendant is a student of the military college and has not received authorization to miss. The judge took her arguments for good.
The fourth truancy was Lieutenant Wenceslas Cardenas Acuña, although he was present his lawyer, who said he did not know that had happened to his client because “was on the way.” In this case the judge gave the defense a two-day period to justify the absence in exchange for not being punished.
Seven of 21 people implicated in the prosecution’s investigation for fuel theft were quoted in this initial hearing; of the highest-ranking controls, only three were presented. The FGR insisted on the need to turn an arrest warrant against those who did not attend, but she felt it was not coming yet.
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Those who did present themselves to the audience with their respective lawyers were Lieutenants Oziel Aldana Portugal, Arturo Villa adame and Ramón Marquez Ledezma.
Two hours of debate
Although the audience ended up being delayeding without formal imputation, it lasted for two hours due to the debate that emerged on three main issues.
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The first addressed the disagreement of some of the defendants by the judge’s decision to divide the prosecution’s petition — the initial indictment hearing against the 21 defendants — in three parts, the first this Friday against the seven involved major RA Ngo.
The judge dismissed the defendants ‘ complaint that it was necessary to divide the group into blocks because it was a lot of defendants, each accompanied by a number of lawyers. “It is necessary to maintain order and to give agility to the process,” the judge explained.
Then the issue of the absence of four of the seven cited was addressed. The prosecutors of the FGR insisted that they be considered as evaded from justice and an arrest warrant turned against them, which the defenders considered an excess because several of them presented evidence. The judge Maria Elena Cardona at this point gave the reason to the lawyers and considered that it was enough with a fine to Trauwitz for its lack of proof.
The third point, which consumed more time, was the prosecution’s request that the hearing be reprogrammed in the absence of several defendants, arguing that it could not file a separate indictment against those involved who were present.
“The presentation we’re going to make is against the entire group. They are all co-authors and there is a hierarchical order of responsibilities. It is not possible to segment the case because it is a single fact and must be presented as such. In addition, there is sensitive information that we prefer to be known to all and not just by one part of the group, “said prosecutor Brenda Granados.
The defenders present tried to have the audience continue. For example, lawyer Reynaldo Sandoval (defender of Villa Adame and Márquez Ledezma) said there were no technical arguments to postpone the session and that his clients had traveled from Tamaulipas and Oaxaca for the audience.
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After listening to both sides, the federal judge gave the right to the prosecutors and reprogrammed the hearing by 31 May. However, he asked them to consider the possibility of remissing any of the above, so it is necessary to analyse alternatives when raising the imputation.
Complaint Defense irregularities
In the final part of the hearing, lawyer José Mauricio Ocampo Castilla denounced to the judge what he considered to be a violation of the principle of presumption of innocence. This was for an interview on a radio newscast that was given by one of the whistleblowers in the case, Moises Ángel Merlin, in which he revealed details of the case and the names of those involved.
In this context, the federal judge asked the FGR to investigate the facts. The prosecutors responded that they had already opened a research folder for the alleged leaks of the file that had started since last month, and announced that this new complaint will be integrated into it.
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Original source in Spanish