The State Attorney General’s Office has 532 specialized prosecutor’s offices, 298 multi-competent prosecutor’s offices (for various criminal offenses), 41 comprehensive attention units, 23 provincial prosecutor’s offices and 3 hearing management units to attend to citizens, direct and promote —whether ex officio or through petition of a party— investigations (pre-trial and procedural) regarding criminal offenses committed in Ecuador.
In total, at the end of 2021, there were 897 prosecutors or spaces of this entity distributed in Ecuador so that the public can access justice. In this last figure are also the eight prosecutors’ offices that were created last year.
But that is not enough. In the country there is a lack of prosecutors with their respective teams to enter the Latin American standard average, according to the State Attorney General, Diana Salazar, who on Wednesday 2 held the public accountability for the year 2021, as stipulated by Ecuadorian law.
“At the end of fiscal year 2021, the tax rate was 4.83 per 100,000 inhabitants, which means that at least 577 tax agents should be incorporated with their respective secretaries and assistants to comply with the Latin American standard and reliably attend to the citizen demands for access to criminal justice,” Salazar explained during the first minutes of his accountability, which lasted a little over an hour, including the answers to five citizen questions.
In the act —which was virtual for citizens, due to the COVID-19 pandemic—, the State Attorney General indicated that at the service points of the 897 prosecutors, at the end of 2021, 845 prosecutors worked with their respective teams ( secretaries and assistants).
In 2021, the Prosecutor’s Office received 295,682 cases filed for the reporting of various crimes. In this period, 174,912 cases from the history of the entity were also archived, according to Salazar.
‘The Prosecutor’s Office pursues crimes, not people,’ says the institution about the case of police officer Santiago Olmedo, sentenced to three years in prison
The most reported crimes were robbery, psychological violence against women or family members, intimidation, fraud, theft, injuries caused by traffic accidents, breach of trust, among others.
The total budget of the Ecuadorian State Attorney General’s Office was $141,388,207 in 2021, for an entity that has 3,767 servers.
Judge Daniella Camacho is left out of the Trial Court of the Las Torres case; in the National Court there will be a draw to complete the room
99.84% of the 2021 budget of the State Attorney General’s Office was executed in that period, according to its owner.
Salazar spoke of figures, cases and status of processes on various issues, such as the fight against corruption that has been followed by the National Unit Specialized in Investigation against Transnational Organized Crime, which has 77 cases (6 of these with convictions for 18 people, 21 in fiscal instruction with 122 prosecuted, among others).
The Transparency and Fight against Corruption Unit also managed 205 cases, of which 34 are supported by the Task Force Unit. He also spoke of the cases achieved by the Multidisciplinary Task Force, the Anti-Money Laundering Unit, among others.
Among the cases that he called of “national connotation”, carried out from the attorney general’s office, are Las Torres, DHRUV Helicópteros and that of former Ombudsman Freddy Carrión.
Salazar also highlighted the achievements, protocols and actions implemented in various areas and themes, innovation and restructuring of schemes, renovation of the data center, manual and system updates, training and others related to the powers of this judicial entity. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
