Writing. The Court with competence in organized crime, environment and corruption issued a formal order processing with preventive detention against the lawyer Reinaldo Leiva Suazo, accused of the crime of extortion to the detriment of a protected witness.
Bárbara Castillo, spokesman for the Public Ministry, explained that the accused did not appear to the Court for health reasons. He was transferred to a health center and, subsequently, sent to the Penitentiary Center of Támara, in Francisco Morazán.
The investigations suggest that Leiva Suazo would have acted in complicity with formerJuez Marco Vallecillo and Nelson Omar Sierra Flores. The three offered help to the protected witness, who faced an investigation and allegedly would be the subject of a tax requirement.
In exchange for intervening in their favor, those involved demanded three million lempiras to the affected, according to the accusation presented by the Public Ministry.
Also read: They stop the second accomplice of Judge Marco Vallecillo by extortion
The case
The events occurred on August 17, 2024, when Vallecillo and Sierra met with the witness in a gas station in the southern zone of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. At the meeting, agents of the Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation (Atic) intervened and captured both involved in the act.
Nelson Sierra was already convicted of these facts in a previous trial. For its part, the process against Reinaldo Leiva advances and the court has sent it to Támara while the legal process continues.
The preliminary hearing was scheduled for Monday, May 5 at 9:30 in the morning, although the parties can still file an amparo appeal.
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