The Mayor’s Office of Santa Cruz presented an appeal against the resolution issued by the Second Sentencing Judge Against Violence Against Women and Anti-Corruption, Hebert Zeballos, who ordered that the former mayor of the municipality of Santa Cruz, Angelica Sosabe removed from the phantom items process, a case for which she was sent to jail in 2021.
According to the complaint, the alleged creation of the 800 “ghost items” in the municipal government caused damage of at least Bs 25 milliontaking into account that the average salary for these positions was Bs 5,000.
Bernardo Montenegro, spokesperson for the commune’s Legal Affairs Directorate, described “illegal and aberrant” the actions of the jurisdictional authority when processing the connection request raised by the former mayor’s defense to accumulate three cases into one. These groups of cases have to do with the processes of ‘irregular contracts’, phantom items and the complaint for legitimation of illicit profits initiated in La Paz.
He assured that the resolution of Judge Zeballos, issued on May 5, does not take into account that the request of Sosa’s defense He previously carried it out on two occasions, both in the case of phantom items and legitimation of illicit gains, of which he maintains that both were denied. For this reason, he considered that proceeding with something judged for the third time demonstrates “the illegality of the judge.”
“The resolution was appealed not only by the municipal government, but also by the Vice Ministry of Transparency and the State Attorney General’s Office, therefore, we hope that in the not too distant future justice will act according to the law and this legal aberration will be reversed because in these processes different aspects are judged,” he explained. Montenegro in contact with the media.
Process can be paralyzed
From the Santa Cruz Prosecutor’s Office they point out that the commission of prosecutors assigned to the investigation and who are part of the accusatory side, are evaluating the resolution of Judge Zeballosand then make a decision, despite the fact that they became aware of such decision unofficially.
Precisely this Monday, July 1, the oral trial hearing for the ghost items case will take place, where the Seventh Sentencing Court will determine whether to follow the determination of Judge Hebert Zeballos or reject it. All the accused in the case will be present at this hearing: Guillermo Parada Vaca, Javier Carrasco Montero and Mery Balcázar Aguilera.
“The process for ghost items continues its course. It was simply ordered that it be accumulated against Sosa and Cedeño,” said Yolanda Aguilera, member of the prosecutors’ commission.
Abel Montaño, Guillermo’s lawyer who is under house arrest for the same case, explained to EL DEBER that if the members that make up the Seventh Sentencing Court decide to hand over the files to the Second Sentencing Court, both Sosa and Javier Cedeño will be prosecuted for such. However, if he decides to reject the judge’s resolution a conflict of jurisdiction will arise and it will be the Criminal Chamber of the Departmental Court of Justice (TDJ) of Santa Cruz who will resolve this situation.
“Of course, if this second option passes, all processes in this case may be paralyzed until it is resolved,” he explained.
“The truth will prevail”
Arturo Heredia, Sosa’s lawyer, told this news outlet that the decision to exclude his client was due to the fact that after two and a half years a court found that His client could not be prosecuted twice for the same crime.
“It is what we always look for, because we defended that the architect is innocent and was being prosecuted for the same act. “They set up three trials for her, when there should only have been one,” she said in contact with this newspaper.
The jurist said that about Sosa two processes weigh, BRT (Bus Rapid Transportation) and Prestín. Regarding the latter, he stated that this cause is about to become extinct.
