State prosecutors asked for the commencement of substantive proceedings against the seven accused by the Attorney General Office of accepting US$92 million in bribes from the Odebrecht construction firm. The Attorney General has signed an agreement with Odebrecht in which the latter agreed to pay a US$184 million fine over an eight-year period for its part in the bribery scheme.
Judge Francisco Ortega Polanco says he will announce on 21 June 2019 his decision as to whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to be heard or orders the case to be closed. Defense lawyers have argued the prosecutors have not presented evidence that can be used against their defendants in a court case.
The Supreme Court of Justice case is preparing the case against the seven. These are former Odebrecht representative Ángel Rondón Rijo, former Minister of Public Works Víctor Díaz Rúa, legal counsel to Díaz Rua, Conrado Enrique Pittaluga Arzeno, former senators Porfirio Andrés Bautista García and Jesús Antonio Vásquez Martínez, senator Tommy Alberto Galán Grullón, former National Aqueduct (Inapa) director Juan Roberto Rodríguez Hernández, is being heard by the Supreme Court of Justice.
The case resumes after the SCJ did not accept a recusal of the judge petitioned by the lawyers of Conrado Pittaluga on 22 April 2019. The lawyers petitioned the recusal after the judge refused a request to order the telecom company to share information on the taping of a telephone of one of the sons of the accused who is part of his defense counsel.
In the past two weeks, the main defendant in the case, Rondón, has been active in local radio and TV talk shows presenting his position that there is no evidence for the case to be tried. He argues that it is just politics.
Rondón says he was never a middleman for Odebecht. He has said the payments he has received were for his services as the Brazilian construction company’s representative in the country. The US Department of the Treasury in 2017 ordered the removal of the US visa and blocking of property of Rondón and several relatives for serious corruption as under the Global Magnitsky Executive Order recourse.
Read more in Spanish:
Z101
Z101
US Embassy
US Treasury
ColorVision
Listin Diario
Haciendo Noticias
9 May 2019