translated from Spanish: Duarte’s right to appeal 9-year prison sentence

The First Collegiate Court in Criminal Matters granted former Governor Of Veracruz Javier Duarte the protection with which he can appeal his 9-year prison sentence, a sentence he himself accepted. 
This decision opens the door for a possible reopening of a trial, if the appeal against the judgment succeeds, so the case would have to be re-reviewed.
Read The PGR and Duarte before the judge: this is how the former governor achieved only 9 years in prison
To obtain a 9-year prison sentence and not the more than 25 that could have been imposed for money laundering and organized crime, Duarte agreed to plead guilty voluntarily without reaching trial, an appeal that allows the current criminal system. 
In exchange for Duarte pleading guilty, the PGR agreed to trade him in the crime of organised crime (the most serious) to that of criminal association, which allowed him to have a reduced sentence. On 11 October 2018, the judge responsible for that case, Marco Antonio Fuerte Tapia, declared that the conviction was firm and closed the proceedings.
However, last July the former governor promoted an appeal for the sentence to be suspended and to be allowed to appeal what he accepted. The case went so to the First Collegiate Court.
What Duarte’s advocates argue is that while his client accepted responsibility for the case without going to trial, he did so on the basis of bank details that the PGR would have collected without a judge’s request, which made them illegal. From the point of view of the litigants, that situation is sufficient for the case to be reopened and eventually annulled.
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A background that favors the position of Duarte’s lawyers is that at least two more defendants in the same case have succeeded in having judges dismiss the proceedings for illegality in the banking evidence, although the case of the former governor is more complex because he agreed to be convicted without going to trial and without the elements being assessed.
Questioned about the date on which this whole proceeding could result in the former governor’s release, the lawyers indicated that this would be until next year.
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Original source in Spanish

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