A federal judge granted the former secretary of Sedesol and Sedatu Rosario Robles Berlanga an amparo against the justified pretrial detention that was issued for more than two years in the process opened against her for “The Master Scam”, and ordered that the possibility of issuing a different precautionary measure be reviewed.
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The Third District Judge in Matters of Amparo, Augusto Octavio Mejía Ojeda, ruled that Robles’ rights were violated when, in April 2020, he had been ratified an automatic pretrial detention without correctly evaluating other alternative measures such as a home arraigo.
That ratification took place at a precautionary review hearing requested by the former secretary of state’s defense attorneys, in which they argued that the automatic detention of Robles since he voluntarily appeared before the judge in August 2019 was disproportionate and unjustified.
The defense argued this after they were able to prove that FGR prosecutors had based Robles’ request for pretrial detention on false documents, such as a driver’s license with a different address that the former official never processed.
However, despite the fact that this evidence was distorted, the judge of control Ganther Villar Ceballos ratified the justified pretrial detention against Robles with other arguments such as that he could obtain resources from third parties to try to escape justice.
Against this determination, the defense led by attorney Epigmenio Mendieta filed an amparo petition that, after more than a year of analysis, was resolved in favor of the former official by Judge Mejia Ojeda.
In the judicial decision, to which Animal Politico had access, Judge Mejía considered that the argument that Robles could obtain resources from third parties was not in itself sufficient to justify a measure of pretrial detention in prison, when there are others less serious and equally effective such as home detention.
“The judge avoided objectively expressing the arguments in which he supported such a conclusion. These inconsistencies made it impossible to determine in a well-founded and reasoned manner whether, in the case, the imposition of the precautionary measure of home preventive detention should be imposed,” the judge said.
This is a serious omission, the amparo ruling adds, since it hindered analyzing the relevance of a measure other than pretrial detention, which must only be exceptional and duly justified.
Read more: Judge orders Emilio Zebadúa to appear as a witness in trial against Rosario Robles
In this context, Mejía Ojeda considered it appropriate to protect Robles for the purpose of replenishing the hearing of the review of precautionary measures in April 2020. At this hearing, Judge Ganther Villar must analyze and decide in a well-founded and reasoned manner whether it is not possible to impose on the former official a house arrest or other measure other than the pretrial detention that weighs on her.
Although this situation opens the possibility for the former official to leave the Santa Martha prison where she has been held since 2019, it should be noted that the FGR still has an arrest warrant against her for organized crime and money laundering that she can execute at any time.
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