(Guatemala) The former anti-corruption prosecutor of Guatemala Virginia Laparra was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for abuse of authority following a trial denounced by human rights organizations.
“Defendant Virginia Laparra is responsible for the crime of continuous abuse of authority committed against public administration” and “is sentenced to four years” in prison, the president of the capital court, Oly Gonzalez, told the reading of expectations.
“It’s a legal aberration,” said Mr.me Laparra, imprisoned for 10 months, who may ask to be released early by paying bail.
Leaving the court handcuffed while about fifty of her supporters chanted “Virginia is innocent” and “out the corrupt”, she was able to address the press.
“It’s a terrible precedent, because never again will a prosecutor dare to file a complaint,” she said.
“Virginia Laparra is a prisoner of conscience who is paying a high price for her work as an anti-corruption prosecutor,” responded Amnesty International’s director for the Americas, Ericka Guevara Rosas.
Mme Laparra was arrested and removed from her position in a crackdown on anti-corruption prosecutors.
During her final speech on Thursday in this trial, which began 18 days ago, she had, in tears, said she was the victim of persecution.
She claimed the charges against her were “revenge” by a plaintiff organization in the trial, the Anti-Terrorism Foundation, known for defending Guatemalan politicians accused of corruption and military officers accused of crimes during the war. civil war (1960-1996).
The Foundation “is not against terrorism, it is a foundation to instill terror”, said the one who was at the head of the Office of the Special Prosecutor against Impunity (FECI) in Quetzaltenango, in the west of the Guatemala.
“Criminal Alliance”
Five judges from the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity and a former representative of the UN Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) were arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and abuse of authority.
The US has listed Guatemala’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras as a ‘corrupt actor’ for ‘repeatedly obstructing and undermining anti-corruption investigations in Guatemala to protect her political allies and obtain undue political favors’ , according to the US State Department.
Mme Porras was reappointed in May for another four-year term by Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei.
The CICIG, created in 2007, sparked a fraud and corruption scandal in the customs services in 2015, which led to the resignation of then-president Otto Pérez (2012-2015), accused of being the instigator and beneficiary of the diversions.
The elites and business circles, aware that the investigations would continue, the new president Jimmy Morales (2016-2020), himself targeted by an investigation for embezzlement to finance his electoral campaign, formerly a supporter of the CICIG, the accused of exceeding his duties and terminated his mission.
From then on, “a revenge for the criminal alliance in Guatemala” was set up for having “revealed the mechanism of corruption”, assured AFP former attorney general Thelma Aldana, a refugee since 2019 in the United States. United.
Juan Francisco Sandoval, the former head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office dismissed in July 2021 by Consuelo Porras, suspected the president of corruption. “He does not want us to investigate the cases in which he could be involved”, had estimated with AFP Mr. Sandoval, then considered a “champion of the fight against corruption” by Washington.