A federal judge refused to grant parole to former Veracruz governor Javier Duarte and ordered that he remain in prison while his appeal against the 9-year sentence imposed for the crime of money laundering and criminal association is resolved.
The judge upheld his decision by concluding that there is a risk that Duarte will run away and therefore parole and home roots are not appropriate, as his lawyers requested.
According to the judge, Duarte’s situation has not changed since he was arrested until now, meaning that, as was concluded at the time, the former governor has the economic or material means to prove a flight risk.
Read more: At risk the judgment against Javier Duarte: courts look to reopen the case
In his speech Duarte’s lawyers and the former governor himself argued that it was never their intention to escape justice and that the fact that he requested leave from office in October 2016 and that he would subsequently travel to Guatemala, was the result of a pact agreed with the then administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto.
“It was out of loyalty and institutionality that I agreed to that. So they could stop harassing my family. But because I was sure of my innocence and that the truth would prevail, I had nothing to fear,” Duarte told the judge.
The defense attorneys even proposed at the hearing that their client be rooted in an apartment whose lease was signed last December for a one-year term with the owner of the property named María Antonia Navarro Ruiz. The cost of this rent would be 25 thousand pesos per month from which it gave a six-month advance.
They showed as evidence the aforementioned contract in addition to several videos, including one recorded in a hotel in Guatemala that Duarte had previously made public, where he announced that he would be voluntarily delivered. They also showed the video of the audience in Guatemala where the former governor agreed to be extradited as proof that he voluntarily wanted to face Mexican justice.
However, the prosecutor of the FGR’s Special Affairs Unit, Manuel Granados Quiroz, replied that what Duarte said was false. He argued that there is no evidence to support the Mexican state’s agreement with Duarte and that, on the contrary, the former governor was arrested in Guatemala thanks to an investigation involving all security forces including Interpol, which had a red token to proceed with the location and capture.
Reads: Supreme Court discusses luging case against Javier Duarte on suspicion of corruption
“None of this can be considered a voluntary surrender, let alone as a mitigating man. It would be the equivalent of saying that a thief who is cornered throws what he took and therefore there was no robbery. It’s not possible,” the Prosecutor said.
The FGR official also noted (at times forcefully) that it was not credible that a newly rented department was sufficient to prove now that Duarte does not want to flee.
“The only domicile of Mr. Javier Duarte is zone 1 stay 13 of the Preying Reclusorio Norte and so it must remain” he said in his intervention.
After concluding the debate that was at times laughed between the parties, Judge Juan Carlos Ramírez Benítez called Duarte’s request to modify the justified pre-trial detention that prevails while defining the appeal he promoted against his sentence is defined.
The judge explained to the former governor that even though “in reality” there had been the pact he says he made with the then Secretary of the Interior, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, that pact would be “illegal” because it is outside the functions that both Osorio and Duarte himself held for the positions they held, and that therefore this is not valid proof to argue that, in fact, he did not want to escape.
The judge recalled that the justified pre-trial detention that Was given to Duarte for the crime of money laundering when he was extradited from Guatemala in 2017 was due to two reasons: that he was detained in a foreign country and that he had sufficient material and economic means to carry it out again. He added that those circumstances had not changed.
“Even the one who now has the possibility to rent a department for an annual sum of more than 200 thousand pesos means that he still has the financial support of other people,” the judge said
The hearing began this Saturday at 12 o’clock and ended shortly after 7 pm. Defense attorney Pablo Campuzano stated in interview that they will promote an appeal or protection against this redetermination of the judge, as he insisted that it is not appropriate for his client to remain in a prisoner.
Read: Four senior former officials of Javier Duarte face trial over the diversion of more than a thousand mdp
It should be noted that today’s hearing at the Federal Justice Center of Reclusorio Norte was the result of a petition made by Javier Duarte and his lawyers after his process was reopened thanks to an amparo that he obtained to have the 9-year prison sentence imposed on him in 2018 be reviewed.
This means that the former governor of Veracruz is in prison preventively and not complying with that sentence because it is not necessary to determine whether it is confirmed or revoked.
#LoÚltimo A federal judge refuses to grant Javier Duarte parole and orders that he remain in prison while the appeal of the nine-year sentence against him is resolved. pic.twitter.com/l3xYoLpinO
— AnimalPolitico.com (@Pajaropolitico) January 5, 2020
Originally, Duarte was extradited from Guatemala in 2017 by three cases. One of them was related to the alleged illegal use of a helicopter in which he allegedly fled after asking for leave (October 2016). This process has already been closed for lack of elements.
The second case was an indictment by the Veracruz Prosecutor’s Office for the alleged diversion of 220 million pesos intended for hydraulic works in his government. Thanks to a Duarte shelter he managed to get the case restarted from scratch and with the benefit granted by a judge to take the process free.
And the third case is just the federal money laundering lawsuit promoted by the then PGR against Duarte and now he’s the only one holding him in jail.
Against the former governor of Veracruz there is also an arrest warrant for alleged enforced disappearance, but it could not be executed since for that case it was not extradited and the Guatemalan government has not given its authorization to make an exception to the treaty that prevents the prosecuting persons for crimes other than those initially required.
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