Page Seven Digital
This Saturday afternoon, Judge Rafael Alcón entered the San Pedro de La Paz prison, where he must remain for the next six months while the accusations against him for having released the serial femicide Richard Choque Flores are investigated. The Government announced that it will monitor the case until justice is done.
“We inform the Bolivian people that Mr. Rafael Alcón, known as the judge who allowed the serial femicide to leave, entered the San Pedro prison with preventive detention for prevarication, resolutions contrary to the Constitution and others, for 6 months. We will do the respective follow-up until justice is done, ”wrote the Minister of Government, Eduardo Del Castillo, on his Facebook account.
The First Anti-Corruption Judge of La Paz decided to send Alcón to the San Pedro prison for six months, after a prolonged hearing in which the Public Ministry presented an accusation for three crimes against him.
He considered it proven that Alcón has an address, family and profession, but warned that there is a risk of flight due to his constant trips to Peru, which could hinder the investigation. He also recalled that Judge Alcón has five other trials for the same charges.
The judge also established that the defendant is a danger to society because “his actions allowed the release of a sentenced person” without the right to pardon.
The Public Ministry charged Judge Alcón with the crimes of breach of duties, malfeasance and suppression and destruction of documents.
Prosecutor Johan Muñoz supported the accusation in three points that assures that Alcón committed prevarication by allowing Choque to leave in 2019.
The representative of the Public Ministry explained that the first requirement to grant house arrest is that the prisoner has a sentence that allows for pardon. However, Choque was accused of femicide, with 30 years in prison “without the right to pardon”
The second is that the prisoner serves two-fifths of the sentence imposed and in a sentence of 30 years it would represent 12. From the review of the memorial and the judge’s decision, it was proven that he only served five years in prison.
The third is that he did not prove a terminal illness as established by the regulations for the execution of sentences. “The judge should have required a report issued by a forensic doctor and there is no forensic certificate that proves an incurable disease. These diseases could be controlled with medication from the prison where he was detained. This determines the malfeasance, breach of duties of Alcón granting freedom to a person who was accused of murder and caused the death of two people.
Muñoz affirmed that the Prosecutor’s Office went to search the courts of La Paz and El Alto but did not find the sentence control notebook, “it disappeared from these courts.” “Simply, we find the criminal process in a file with legalized and simple photocopies where there is no document proving terminal illness, report from the judge, secretary or social visitor.”
“Therefore, he is charged with the crimes of breach of duties, prevaticato and suppression and destruction of documents,” he specified.
