Montecristi, MANABI
The hearing to formulate charges against fifteen officers of the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE), who are suspected of the alleged crime of sabotage for damaging the radar installed on the Montecristi hill, was postponed.
This decision was adopted after learning before the hearing was established that one of the lawyers had only been authorized this Friday to defend one of the defendants in this case.
The investigation for the alleged crime of sabotage due to the damage to the radar installed on that Manabita mountain began on November 7, 2021.
Carlos Piedra, prosecutor of the Montecristi canton, after hearing the request that a lawyer was not yet aware of the process, asked Vicente Pico, judge of the Montecristi Multi-competent Unit, to postpone the hearing to formulate charges.
Nikita Higuera is the lawyer who this Friday received authorization from one of the fifteen defendants. He asked prosecutor Piedra to set another date for the hearing.
“The most curious thing about this criminal process that is presented and is intended to be initiated and that we are in a preliminary investigation, is that the gentlemen of the high command (of the FAE), such as the generals, have not been called to render a version… The Prosecutor’s Office has not called them, here they intend to accuse a troubled river ”, declared Higuera.
César Vanegas, who together with Danilo Vanegas defends eight suspects for the crime of sabotage, indicated that the file has ten bodies and agrees with Higuera that various authorities should be called to carry out certain procedures by the State Attorney General’s Office ( FGE), and that they have not presented themselves yet, and that they could even be called through the public force.
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Walter Barrera is a lawyer for several FAE officers who have not yet been called to file charges, but who are in a process in which the charges against them could be extended. That is why he observes and acts within the process.
The lawyer pointed out that versions should be taken from high command and even from some who have retired.
“What would happen if the charges were filed and 90 days were given for the investigation, those who are directly responsible, those who gave the orders, the ex-commander general (Geovanny) Espinel, we are talking about the general, simply will not come to declare (Antonio) Puga, who was the head of FAE operations, and we are talking about the FAE payer (he did not give a name), who was appointed to the project, that is, he will have to answer for all the contracts that were made , not the troops,” Barrera said.
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The relatives of the defendants, some with Bible in hand, prayed and whispered so that their relatives are not punished for a crime established in article 345 of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP).
That article indicates: “The person who, in order to disrupt the country’s economic environment or public order, destroys industrial or manufacturing facilities, shopping centers, ports, canals, reservoirs, mines, magazines, vehicles or any other means of transportation, goods essential for the provision of public or private services, warehouses for merchandise, explosives, lubricants, fuels, raw materials for national production or consumption, roads or works for communication, or interrupt or hinder the work of the security teams. emergency, will be sanctioned with a custodial sentence of five to seven years.
That article adds that the penalty will be imprisonment from seven to ten years if infrastructure in strategic sectors is destroyed.
María Changotasig came from Quito to be close to her son, who has been in the FAE for 17 years and who she said would never have been punished for his activities.
“They are just the laborers and the main ones are not here, they only carry out care orders and now they are suffering because they don’t sleep, they don’t eat and the problem spreads to other relatives,” said the mother.
Estela Quibantisa arrived in Montecristi from the province of Tungurahua and asks that justice be done and that the fifteen people indicated in this alleged crime are not prosecuted. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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