Appeal against Jorge Yunda’s claim does not advance due to the lack of notification of the sentence in writing

Both the defense of Jorge Yunda and that of judge Fabián Fabara are waiting for the sentence to be issued in writing that confirms that the petition for disqualification presented was accepted by the former mayor of Quito, which separated Judge Fabara from the Trial Court that analyzed the crime of embezzlement that occurred in the acquisition of 100,000 tests to detect COVID-19 by the Ministry of Health of the Municipality of Quito.

It has been several days – fifteen, to be exact – that the criminal judges of Pichincha Wilson Lema and Patlova Guerra made known orally the unanimous decision to accept the challenge proposed by the dismissed mayor of Quito.

Judges accept the challenge raised by Jorge Yunda and separate Judge Fabián Fabara from the case for embezzlement

The oral ruling was read between the afternoon and night of December 22 and it is important for the parties that It is notified in writing so that the appeal that was advanced is known verbally defending Fabara.

With the appeal presented at the same hearing by Xavier Flores, defense of the challenged judge, another court of the Provincial Court of Pichincha must analyze the conclusions reached Lema y Guerra that the power of clarification that Fabián Fabara had at “a certain moment ended in an interrogation” in which several questions were asked, and that many of them “have a content inserted, a criterion that the judge exposes and in which introduces new information, both to the witnesses and to the experts ”.

Both Lema and Guerra indicated in their oral resolution that they verified that those clarifying questions about Fabara’s beginning “turn into real interrogations that implicitly imply some criteria.” In addition, they warned that in the questions asked “certain information is introduced, in some cases a lot of information, several questions in one and in some cases some conclusions ”.

Flores assures that before this new court they will deliver the arguments to point out that the decision made by judges Guerra and Lema is wrong. Fabara’s defense at the same hearing requested that this sentence be expanded and clarified, which it described as “dark.” The judges responded in the same diligence.

Édgar Molina, part of Jorge Yunda’s defense, pointed out that, as far as he knows, on January 10 next they would be notified with the sentence in writing, that is, the ruling would be uploaded to the notification system. He assures that only from that moment can the process begin for the draw of the Provincial Court that will assume the future appeal hearing.

Challenge accepted against Jorge Yunda further lengthens the trial of 14 people accused of the crime of embezzlement

Molina hopes that at the appeal hearing the decision of justices Guerra and Lema will be ratified. “The arguments we presented were extremely strong. It is the first time something like this has happened, that two judges of the Court itself realize that what a judge was doing is something anecdotal. That will be submitted to appeal, but I think the result will be the same, “he said.

Until the challenge is resolved, the main process, that of embezzlement, will not be able to advance.

For embezzlement, not only is former mayor Yunda investigated as a mediate perpetrator; so are the former secretary of Salud Lenín Mantilla and Juan Alejandro Vinelli, manager of Salumed SA, accused as direct authors; and eleven more people named as co-authors, among them, Ximena Abarca, former Secretary of Health, and Linda Guamán, former technical coordinator of the Ministry of Health. (I)