A federal court decided today to protect the former Secretary of State, Rosario Robles Berlanga, so that the judge responsible for her case can review whether or not the crime for which she has been prosecuted and imprisoned in the women’s prison of Santa Martha Acatitla for more than two years is repealed.
This is a key review since, if the crime is no longer in force, the process against the former federal official must be canceled immediately. Until now, the judges responsible for the process had refused to carry it out.
In today’s hearing, the Ninth Collegiate Court of the First Circuit of Mexico City concluded (after a 2-1 vote) that the constitutional rights of the former federal official were violated, after Judge Ganther Villar Ceballos did not respond to the request made by the defense to analyze the validity of the crime.
It should be noted that this is already the fourth time that federal courts have protected the former official against decisions of the aforementioned control judge of the South Prison.
What the defense of Robles headed by the lawyer Epigmenio Mendieta has insisted is that the illicit exercise of improper exercise of public service in the modality of omission (which is the one that is imputed to the former official for the case of La Estafa Maestra) is already repealed by the Federal Law of Budget and Financial Responsibility.
This would update what is established in section VII of article 327 of the National Code of Criminal Procedure, which states that a process must be dismissed (canceled) if the crime for which it was initiated was repealed by a subsequent reform or law, as it could be in this case.
However, in a hearing held on October 26, 2020, Judge Villar Ceballos refused to enter into the analysis of this matter on the grounds that this corresponded, in any case, to an appeal court, since from his perspective it was no longer appropriate to enter into this issue.
Against that decision, the lawyers of the former official promoted an amparo before the Third District Court which refused to grant protection to Robles, noting that this could throw away the entire criminal process in progress.
In this context, the draft prepared by Judge Juan Carlos Ramírez Benítez resolves that none of these arguments is valid and that Robles is right to request that it be reviewed whether the crime for which he is kept in pretrial detention is in force or not. This is given that such a review is key to defining whether or not the criminal process remains ongoing, and whether it is necessary for her to remain in jail or be released.
“What the complaining party (Robles) wants is for the judge to define if this case of dismissal occurs and he is absolutely right to request it. It is the only thing he asks for and to deny them in leaving them in total helplessness. And if this has the effect that the case concludes and there is no oral trial because that is precisely what these instances of dismissal are for, so as not to reach the oral trial if this assumption occurs, “said Judge Emma Meza Fonseca.
The magistrate who spoke out against it was Ricardo Paredes Calderón, who considered that the argument regarding the potential repeal of the crime should have been presented at the initial hearing and not later. “Trying to re-study things that the parties did not say at the beginning does not seem appropriate to me. It seems to me that it is intended to make a reassessment or mini-judgment that is not appropriate anymore,” said the judge.
However, the magistrate insisted that the right to effective judicial protection should be privileged and that, therefore, Robles has the right to hear the reasoning regarding his petition even if it is considered that the crime is not repealed and that the process must continue as it has been carried out so far.
Judge Ramírez Benítez, author of the bill, recalled that Robles initially had other lawyers who, in fact, did not present the issue of dismissal. However, his new legal team did and introduced it as a novel element, and that is enough for that determination to have to be analyzed by the control judge.
Defense promotes amparo against prison
On the other hand, the defense of Rosario Robles yesterday filed a new request for amparo against the decision of Judge Ganther Villar Ceballos, reiterated in a hearing held last December, to keep the former federal official in preventive detention while her process is resolved and it is decided if she is really guilty of the crime she is accused of.
The lawyers of the former official promoted the aforementioned appeal after considering that this judge, repeatedly, has insisted on keeping her deprived of her liberty with arguments qThese, with the passage of time, have been dismissed by other amparo judges. Robles, who from the beginning voluntarily presented himself to the hearing, has offered to undergo house arrest or wear an electronic bracelet, but Villar Ceballos has not given the green light to this alternative.
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