The Criminal Court 3 of Jujuy declared the nullity of the trial for the alleged theft and destruction of a local Justice file against the leader Milagro Sala and two other defendants, which after starting in August added seven hearings suspended in a row, for the state of health of one of the defendants.
The parties waited for it to be known a final medical report by professionals from Jujuy’s Judiciary, clarifying the current state of health of the defendant in question, the lawyer Alberto Bellido, accused together with Sala and the judicial employee Marcos Romero.
Bellido fHe underwent a heart operation in recent weeks after denouncing extortion by the prosecution in his last participation in the hearingson September 5.
In this context, as soon as the hearing began on Tuesday, the report was read that ratified, as had already been stated before the Court, that the accused could attend the process but as a “passive participant”, without being able to be submitted for a period of 30 days -from October 13- to stress situations, such as a confrontation that Bellido himself, leading his defense, raised at the beginning of the debate.
The defense of the accused advanced in considering that even Bellido came with the express will to exercise his personal defense in a material way, and requested, as he had already requested, that he be separated from the case or in subsidy a definition of continuity be taken. of process.
The qualified Chamber prosecutor, Diego Funes, for his part, emphasizing the medical report and the series of “unsuccessful” hearings, spoke of an affectation of the correct development of the debateparticularly around the principle of continuity, for which he also made the request for annulment of the hearing of the process from the beginning of the debate.
In the meantime, he requested that the Court not deviate from the understanding of the process and requested that a date be set immediately to restart the debate.
Secondly, Romero’s lawyer partially adhered to the request for annulment of the trial; he appealed to the non-subsistence of the criminal action and requested the dismissal of his client.
Sala’s defense added a petition against the current Court maintaining its jurisdiction, pointing out that it must completely ignore what is involved in the process and that “it is the only way to uphold constitutional guarantees.”
After analyzing the request, the Court, made up of María Nallar, Carolina Pérez Rojas and Mario Puig, unanimously resolved to declare the nullity of the debate from its beginning, on August 18, due to the temporary inability of the accused Bellido to actively participate in the process. .
Based on the foregoing, in addition, no room was made for the other proposals made. As for whether the Court will maintain its jurisdiction, it finally decided to refer the case to the Superior Court of Justice so that the Criminal Court determines that it should continue in the process.
“It is a final resolution that we have been proposing for a long time, mainly because of Bellido’s health, which is serious, and secondly because of the process, which could not continue in any way,” their lawyers Julián Palmieri and Juan Cabezas expressed after the sentence, and indicating that “what was given was the acceptance that it was really a delicate health situation, endorsed by the doctors of Power, which already existed but they had not wanted to accept it.”
