The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ordered that the process opened in Anzoátegui against the former mayor of El Tigre (Anzoátegui), José Paraqueima, continue in Caracas, according to sentence number 179, written by magistrate Elsa Gómez.
Paraqueima was arrested last week after an agreement was approved in the National Assembly to repudiate his statements against children with autism spectrum disorder. Based on this, the Public Ministry processed an arrest warrant against Paraqueima, which was executed last Thursday by agents of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin), who transferred the former opposition mayor to Caracas.
That same day, the 79th national prosecutor, Ronnie Alexander Osorio Hernández, asked the Criminal Chamber of the TSJ to file the process open against Paraqueima in Caracas. Subsequently, the former mayor was charged before the 21st Court of Control of Caracas for the alleged commission of the crimes of promoting hate, arbitrary act and obstruction of free trade.
At the time of filing the filing appeal, the prosecutor Osorio Hernández argued that “the existing conditions in the territory where the criminal process is currently taking place, Anzoátegui state, are not the most appropriate for the proper development of the case, and could generate an imbalance that compromises the impartiality of the prosecutors, judges or judges who hear the matter.”
The magistrates endorsed this approach of the Public Ministry after determining that the actions of Paraqueima caused “alarm and a public scandal in the region.”
And, consequently, the Criminal Chamber agreed to file the trial against Paraqueima in Caracas “in order to ensure proper administration and application of responsible and expeditious justice… with the purpose of safeguarding the peace and security of all the parties involved, thus ensuring the purpose of the criminal process.
Added to all of the above, the magistrates said that they cannot ignore the facts that gave rise to the present investigation.
In this sense, the magistrates rejected “the aberrational qualifications used by the citizen José Paraqueima Luigi, to refer to a population as vulnerable as children with autism spectrum disorder, human beings as equal as us who deserve all the respect and consideration by the entire community where they operate, reasons for which every citizen has the duty to provide them with support and ensure the use and enjoyment of all rights”.
