Along with former mayor Jorge Yunda, thirteen more people are prosecuted for the crime of embezzlement that occurred in the acquisition of tests to detect Covid-19.
Regardless of whether or not the request for disqualification that the former mayor of Quito presented last Thursday is accepted Jorge Yunda against one of the judges of the Provincial Court Court of Pichincha who is trying him for the crime of embezzlement, the processing of the case will suffer delays.
The judges that make up the Tribunal, Wilson Lema (speaker), Patlova Guerra and Fabián Fabara, who is the judge challenged for an alleged lack of impartiality in this case, they have anticipated the procedural subjects who have a busy schedule for the month of November and that could even reach the first days of December.
On the sixteenth day of the trial hearing and on the second day that Yunda’s defense presented the evidence that he kept to reject the prosecution’s accusation, the challenge was presented arguing that Judge Fabara has shown his partiality within the diligence that began on September 29.
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
The plaintiff asks the judges Lema and Guerra to accept the proposed challenge and to separate from the knowledge of the cause for the embezzlement of Fabara and it is ordered that the judge who subrogates him remain in the knowledge of the case as principal.
For Pablo Encalada, attorney for the defendant Enrique Buchelli, who would have generated the need to acquire the evidence, Accepting the challenge would not only cause it to be separated Judge Fabara of the case, but other members should be appointed to the Court, because the trial hearing would go back to zero, that is, everything that has been discussed in fifteen days would have to be repeated and this Court of Judgment “would already be contaminated”.
“There is a fact that has happened at the hearing and the defense of the former mayor has considered that this is the fact for which he does not feel judged by an impartial judge and we have all seen it. Now how we value that fact depends on each one ”, Encalada referred, who said that he understands and respects the decision made, but at the same time he regrets that it happened because the audience, he said, had been going very well for Buchelli’s defense.
The other possibility that exists as part of this lawsuit is that the judges who have not been challenged do not accept it and order that the hearing continue on the 16th.
If this resolution is given, said Nicolás Salas, lawyer for the former Secretary of Health and also processed in this case, Ximena Abarca, the processing of the case will continue to have delays, since an order had to be issued in which the Court announces that it is hearing the case – that could occur between this Friday and Monday of next week – Then there must be a challenge hearing -which could be defined for Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week-, and then the resolution will only be known.
“In either case, it will take a few days and the cause will be delayed. In addition, the Court, once the demand for recusal reported that their agenda is full all month November and some days of the month of December ”, said Salas.
Marcelo Icaza, part of the defense of the removed mayor of Quito, defends the appeal presented indicating that Judge Fabara within the procedural instrument to clarify things that are in doubt, has generated an examination and cross-examination of the witnesses and has introduced information that they do not give against his client.
The lawyer acknowledges that this process could take some time, because among other things, the judges’ agenda is crowded for the next few months. Reject that it is said that this demand was placed to delay the process and clarifies that this is not an incident that seeks to delay, but is a resource that is duly motivated.
The Prosecutor’s Office, through its social networks, has explained that Yunda’s recusal demand came a day after the provincial prosecutor of Pichincha, Alberto Santillán, in his cross-examination made visible inconsistencies in a public procurement expertise presented as evidence by the defense of the former mayor.
Regarding the proceedings of Judge Fabara at the hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office indicated that the magistrate also requested clarifications to the experts presented by Santillán, that is, he acted in the same way than with Yunda, based on the powers conferred by article 615, numeral 7, of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code.
Yunda’s defense warns in its claim document that along with Fabara’s lack of impartiality, it is the crime of influence peddling that the judge would ultimately intend to sentence. In the part of the evidentiary announcements for the claim, it is requested that Judge Fabara appear to render statement “especially about the reasons for their actions and the legal justification for conducting interrogations and discrediting defense witnesses.”
In the case for embezzlement against Jorge Yunda, the Prosecutor’s Office concludes the presentation of 140 testimonial and documentary expert evidence
Whitewashed mentioned that there has been an active and quite participatory action of one of the judges of the Court, but believes that the reading of lack of impartiality belongs to each one. “Regarding my client, I have not felt that he had any animosity in any way, but they (Yunda’s defense) consider that against their client, yes. I understand and respect that decision ”.
For 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, the removed mayor Yunda is accused as a mediator; while As direct perpetrators of embezzlement, the former Secretary of Health Lenín Mantilla is accused, and Juan Alejandro Vinelli, manager of Salumed SA
In addition, eleven more people were accused as co-perpetrators, including Ximena Abarca, former Secretary of Health; Linda Guamán, former technical coordinator of the Ministry of Health. (I)
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