One morning in November 1990, Gilberto T. was driving near the border checkpoint of the Tufiño military detachment of the 39th Infantry Battalion, in northern Ecuador.
The car apparently lost its brakes, went against the structure of the military checkpoint and destroyed it.
The military’s reaction to this event was to shoot at the truck, according to investigations by the Prosecutor’s Office. The shots killed the driver.
The head of the military detachment, Mario Fabián RE, a second lieutenant at the time, was implicated in the incident. The case appears in the report of the Truth Commission, and the State Attorney General’s Office opened a preliminary investigation in 2011.
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This military action was investigated due to the disproportions apparently committed by the uniformed men.
The case reached the courts and is approaching final instances. Prosecutor Ángel Cujilema Daga, of Human Rights Prosecutor No. 5, presented before the judge his accusatory opinion against the soldier Mario Fabián RE, for his alleged responsibility in the crime of extrajudicial execution.
Versions of eyewitnesses, documentation recovered in the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. AA. of the Ministry of Defense, data on the characteristics of the weapon of war with which the life of the victim was deprived, were part of the elements presented by the Prosecutor’s Office.
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There is also a report on the powers of the officials and the mission of the Armed Forces, extraordinary expertise on the progressive use of force, imprescriptibility of the imputed crime, among others. In total, forty-eight elements of conviction were presented at the exhibition.
Within the process, Judge Victoriano Enríquez Mafla, of the Criminal Judicial Unit based in Tulcán, declared the procedural validity of everything that was done by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The diligence will be reinstated on Monday, March 14, to continue with the presentation of the defense’s arguments.
The crime of extrajudicial execution is typified in article 85 of the Organic Comprehensive Criminal Code (COIP) and is punishable by imprisonment from twenty-two to twenty-six years. (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.
