translated from Spanish: Judge refuses to stop process against Robles and will remain imprisoned

A federal judge declared Rosario Robles’ request to suspend the criminal proceedings opened against him for more than a year for alleged omissions, which would have led to the diversion of more than five billion pesos from Sedesol and Sedatu in the past six years.
Judge Ganther Villar Ceballos’ decision came after a hearing that lasted more than eight hours, and in which the presentation of the evidence, at the defense’s request, was deferred until 8 December.  Meanwhile, the former federal civilist will remain in prison.
As anticipated, at the start of the intermediate hearing held behind closed doors in the South Reclusorio’s courtroom, lawyers from the former surrogate of Sedesol and Sedatu asked the judge to deliver the dismissal (final suspension) of the case, on the grounds that the offence of improper exercise of public service in the form of omission attributed to her by the FGR was repealed.
According to the lawyers, the publication of the Federal Law on Budget and Property Responsibility established that the safeguarding and proper management of the budget by the owners of the unit was an administrative issue and that, in any case, if there were irregularities, the issue should be dealt with by that route and not by the criminal one.
Against this, the FGR prosecutors and representatives of the Federation Higher Audit (ASF) argued that this was reasoning that had been rejected before, and that the likely responsibility of the former official in that unlawful situation was clear.
After hearing all parties, the judge decided to reject the defence’s request and considered, in any event, that the debate on whether or not there was a crime already repealed will be the subject of the trial phase.
Once the above has been resolved, the FGR prosecutors formally upheaken the accusation brought in writing against Robles and in which, among other things, they request that she be sentenced to 21 years in prison for having allowed the signing of conventions in the past six years that led to the diversion of more than five billion pesos from Sedesol and Sedatu. This is under the scheme known as “The Master Scam”.
Rosario Robles, who was physically present at the hearing although she had the option of having followed her by video conference, took the floor to reiterate her innocence and confirm that she was not interested in a short trial involving pleading guilty, and that if necessary she would defend he he hed in trial.
Suspense tests
The next phase of the mid-term hearing corresponded to the discovery and presentation of evidence by the prosecution and the defence. This was in order to discuss which ones were discarded and which were being maintained for the next trial.
However, this presentation of evidence was postponed until December 8 after Robles’ lawyers asked for more time to conclude two accounting and public administration experts that they consider key to supporting their case theory.
Since neither the FGR nor the ASF opposed this request and the legal framework states that the right to a defence must be privileged, the judge granted the extra time limit requested by the defenders.
However, this means that the former federal staff worker must continue to preemptively in the Santa Martha Acatitla prison at least until next year, when the trial is conducted.
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Original source in Spanish