Against the clock. The Third National Collegiate Criminal Court granted a little over two months, 68 days in total, to the special team of prosecutors of the car wash case to restore international judicial cooperation with Brazil and get nine Brazilian citizens to testify in the trial of former President Ollanta Humala, Nadine Heredia and the Peruvian Nationalist Party.
This is not a specific deadline. It is the time that remains from today until January 16, 2023, the day from which Brazilian citizens must declare Marcelo Odebrecht, Jorge Barata, Luiz Antonio Mameri, Fernando Miglaccio da Silva, Hilberto Mascarenhas da Silva, Joao Cerqueira de Santana, Mónica Cunha Moura, Valfredo de Assis Ribeiro and Valdemir Pereira Garreta.
His statements were scheduled to be made in various hearings that would take place from November 7 to 21 of this year. Nevertheless, Marcelo Odebrecht did not appear to testify via videoconference since the Consulate of Peru in sao paulo, and it became clear that his other countrymen would not do so either in the following days.
Cooperation
The prosecutor of the special team Germán Juárez Atoche informed the Collegiate Court presided over by Judge Nayko Coronado that the statement could not be made after The Secretariat of International Legal Cooperation of the Federal Public Ministry of Brazil suspended the judicial cooperation it provides to Peru in the Lava Jato case.
By suspending the collaboration, the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office has no way of knowing if the notifications to participate in the hearing reached the hands of each of the witnesses, said Juárez.
In addition, he announced that on Friday, November 5, he received a letter from the Odebrecht office in Peru requesting reschedule the testimony of five witnesses: Marcelo Odebrecht, Jorge Barata, Luiz Mameri, Hilberto Mascarenhas da Silva and Fernando Migliaccio.
In this sense, Juárez proposed rescheduling the statements within a reasonable period under penalty of dispensing with his statements and inform the authorities that they are not complying with collaborating with justice. In the case of Jorge Barata of breaching the effective collaboration agreement.
He even proposed that two witnesses be summoned, linked to the OAS construction company, without going through international judicial cooperation.
warning of law
After listening to the defense lawyers, the court concluded that a group of witnesses cannot be treated differently from the rest and that in the case of foreign citizens, it should be notified via international judicial cooperation.
He also dismissed summoning them with a warning, since the causes of their non-appearance are unrelated to the process. and only the Prosecutor’s Office is aware of them.
Therefore, it was rescheduled to quote them only with warning of law via judicial cooperation and, additionally, to the addresses consigned by their lawyers in Lima.
Given the concern of the defense attorneys, the judges clarified that if they do not present again in January, then it will only be evaluated if the requirements indicated in the Code of Criminal Procedure are met to dispense with the personal statement of a witness and use their prior written statement. .
Lawyers César Nakazaki and Wilfredo Pedraza asked to meet the report of the Brazilian Prosecutor’s Office that suspended the effective collaboration to know the causes of the non-concurrence of the witnesses.
The new dates of the declaration of the Brazilians
The Collegiate Criminal Court scheduled to interrogate Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht on January 16, Jorge Barata on January 17, publicist Valdemir Garreta and former Odebrecht director Luiz Mameri on January 23, 2023.
In addition, to Fernando Migliaccio and Hilberto da Silva on January 24, to conclude with Joao Cerqueira, Mónica Moura and Valfredo de Assis on January 25. All of them must declare via videoconference from the Peruvian Consulate in Sao Paulo.
As they are foreign citizens who do not currently reside in Peru, they will be notified via international judicial cooperation. The Court recalled that the previous summons was issued in September 2022.
In that trial, 285 witnesses have been called, of which about 150 have already testified. The first about the contributions in 2006 and from now on about 2011.
