Judge Carmen Acú Recinos declared this Tuesday January 3, under confidentiality, the case in which the former head of the Special Prosecutor against Impunity (Feci) in Quetzaltenango, Virginia Laparra, He remains in a designated prison for revealing classified information.
The reservation of the case was issued for 10 days and was requested by the prosecutor of the prosecutor for internal affairs (MP), Noé Rivera, who, among his arguments for making this request, was that the media should not be present. in that kind of process because “violate the rights of detainees and misrepresent information”.
The audience this Tuesday, developed in the city of Quetzaltenango, In principle, it was up to Judge Acú Recinos to expand his resolution to explain whether or not he continued to examine the case against Laparra, because in October 2022 the defense of the former prosecutor challenged it.
However, the judge ruled that the appeal was inadmissible, so it automatically moved to the first stage of declaration, but the defense presented several objections because the former prosecutor doubts his impartiality, Well, according to his testimony during the hearing, he was compliant with the arguments by former judge Lesther Castellanos, which was denounced by Laparra and which initiated the proceedings which are taking place against the exfeci, recently sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the deputy asked for the confidentiality of the case because in the union that will make up in Laparra there are media and journalists who could be witnesses or They could be called to testify in the trial.
During the hearing, prosecutor Noé Rivera accused the media of interfering in the proceedings; Furthermore, he stated that under no circumstances should journalists be present in this type of process because “detainees’ rights are violated and information is misrepresented”.
Laparra, for his part, said at the hearing that it is ironic that the congressman is asking for the case to be confidential when the plaintiffs publish details of the hearings, even when they are in development.
On December 16, a court sentenced Laparra to 4 commutable years’ imprisonment at the rate of Q10 per day, after being found guilty of the crime of continued abuse of authority.
Laparra was brought to trial after former judge Lesther Castellanos denounced her, Well, when he was a prosecutor, he wanted to investigate him four times for allegedly leaking classified information.
The trial lasted just 18 days and all those who testified were police officers or civil servants, in addition to a controversial judge who was investigated by the defendant before being arrested, on February 23, 2022.
The only witnesses who testified in this trial were two police officers who arrested her, a prosecution-appointed attorney, an expert graphologist (to authenticate her signature), and former judge Lesther Castellanos, whom Laparra has sued four times for allegedly leaking classified information.
The court also barred Laparra from holding public office while she was serving her sentence, but she will be able to practice as a lawyer, a setback for the prosecutor’s office, which had requested a total ban and who was sentenced to eight non-commutable years in prison.
Laparra said the allegations against him were “revenge” by a controversial right-wing entity, plaintiff in this trial, famous for defending politicians charged with corruption and soldiers accused of committing crimes during the civil war (1960-1996).
