Jorge Yunda recuses one of the judges of the Trial Court of the case for embezzlement and asks that he be separated from the case

One day after the former mayor of Quito Jorge Yunda spoke in front of the Pichincha Criminal Court that will judge him within the process for the crime of embezzlement that occurred in the purchase of 100,000 tests to detect COVID-19, carried out by the Ministry of Health of the Municipality of the capital in 2020, he presented a claim to challenge one of the members of the Chamber, Judge Fabián Fabara, to be separated from hearing the case.

The action was presented online in the Provincial Court of Justice of Pichincha at 09:10 this Thursday, almost at the same time. time that on the eleventh floor of the North Judicial Complex an attempt was made to reinstate the day number 16 of trial hearing against fourteen people accused by the provincial prosecutor of Pichincha, Alberto Santillán, in the capacity of mediate perpetrators, direct authors and accomplices.

Jorge Yunda says at the trial hearing for embezzlement that he does not ‘regret’ the decisions made during the pandemic

In the lawsuit, Jorge Yunda would argue that Judge Fabara has shown partiality during the trial hearing that began 16 days ago. Given this, the plaintiff requests that the proposed challenge be accepted and is separated from the knowledge of the cause for embezzlement of Fabara and that the judge who subrogates him is aware of the case as principal.

Despite the fact that the crime of embezzlement is analyzed in this criminal process, Yunda’s defense warns in her claim that it is the crime of influence peddling which the defendant Judge Fabara I would have the intention of finally sentencing.

The document indicates in the part of the evidentiary announcements for the demand that Judge Fabara appear to render statement regarding the grounds of the claim, “especially about the grounds of his actions and the legal justification for carrying out interrogations and discrediting defense witnesses ”.

As part of the challenge, Yunda’s defense not only requests that full copies of the audios of the trial hearing be delivered within the embezzlement case, but also requests that they be called to give their testimony to nine attorneys for the defendants in this case, including Felipe Rodríguez, defense of Juan Vinelli; Nicolás Salas, Ximena Abarca’s lawyer; María del Mar Gallegos, defender of Linda Guamán, among others.

Last Wednesday, Yunda’s defense began with the presentation of his expert, testimonial and documentary evidence to contradict the prosecution’s accusation.

Yunda is accused as a mediate perpetrator; while as direct perpetrators of embezzlement Lenín Mantilla and Juan Alejandro Vinelli, manager of Salumed SA Eleven more people were accused as co-authors: Ximena Abarca, former Secretary of Health; Linda Guamán, former technical coordinator of the Ministry of Health; Daysi H., Jéssica C., Érick A., Marco R., Simón V., Enrique B., Diego S., Iván M., and José M.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, instead of the PCR-Polymerase tests, the Ministry of Health of the Capital Municipality would have received RT LAMP diagnostic tests, whose ability to detect the virus it would be less than that required in the contract. In other words, they would not have complied with the technical specifications requested and, even so, they were accepted by the Ministry of Health.

“I have asked the lawyers what is embezzlement and they have told me that it is my having benefited or having benefited someone. Here, absolutely no one but the population has benefited. I have not benefited. If for those decisions I have to face a deprivation of liberty of 14 years, I know that my conscience will be clear because if I had not done so, I would never have been able to sleep in peace with the number of deaths that would have existed in this city ”.

During the testimony that Yunda gave, the prosecutor Santillán asked him questions as a defendant in the case. Consulted him about the chat conversations held between the then mayor and several of the officials processed on the low sensitivity of the tests acquired and on the unilateral termination of the contract with Salumed.

In the case for embezzlement against Jorge Yunda, the Prosecutor’s Office concludes the presentation of 140 testimonial and documentary expert evidence

The Prosecutor’s Office in his Twitter account highlighted that Yunda was questioned by Judge Fabián Fabara, who would have asked him if Jorge Yunda, as mayor, communicated to the Metropolitan Council regarding to the release of budget ceilings with which he authorized the increase in amounts. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Yunda would have answered that “he did not do it directly, since he does not know the operation of financial matters.”

On this issue, Yunda in her testimony said: “There was no availability of supplies, evidence and that is where I am asked to release the ceilings of the budget, which the law also empowers me in a responsible manner, because we are faced with an emergency and had to purchase medical supplies. We did not foresee these circumstances and in no law or budget is it determined to face a pandemic. Our country does not have laws to face a pandemic, because there has never been a pandemic, “he said.

To other questions from Judge Fabara about whether the Metropolitan Council was informed of the expiration dates of the tests, Jorge Yunda, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, would have answered that the technicians explained to him that “there was nothing to worry about”, as the expiration time had a range of months, without specifying how many.

In his testimony Jorge Yunda defended the provisions and delegations that he issued within the emergency to the different municipal institutions, especially the Ministry of Health. He said it was physically impossible for the mayor start signing thousands of contracts for an entire municipality with a budget of $ 2,000 million.

“Managers, secretaries, technical, legal, financial, public procurement teams are delegated to do so and they are not delegated to buy COVID tests, they are delegated to buy medical supplies for face this pandemic, “said the former mayor, while he said that in this hearing what It has been tried to show is that the tests were not valid and that he told his officials to cover everything, when the reality was that everything that was said on the subject was reported to the full Metropolitan Council and not only to the mayor.

At the moment the hearing is suspended until the two judges that make up the Chamber: Wilson Lema and Patlova Guerra, resolve the challenge that has been presented against Fabara. (I)