The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ordered a trial to be held against a group of officials accused of kidnapping and forced disappearance of persons, according to sentence 128 drafted by magistrate Elsa Gómez.
The trial is against two Cicpc agents, identified as Leonardo José Deplabos Romero and Jhonadry José Farías Boada, and also against the Bolivarian National Guard official Joshua Bryan Piñango Escoriguela.
They also order the prosecution of Guido Jiménez Ferruchi, owner of an establishment located in San Félix (Bolívar) for the sale and purchase of gold, and the worker Simón Gutiérrez.
These and five other people are accused of murdering César Manuel Aguillón and Carmelo Ramón Morgado Rangel six years ago. The body of the latter has not yet been located.
In May 2017, César and Carmelo traveled from Valencia (Carabobo) to San Félix (Bolívar) to sell a few grams of gold. They go directly to Joyería e Inversiones Ferruchi, located in downtown San Félix. There they are gagged and tied up to be transferred in vehicles to the Angostura bridge (Ciudad Bolívar) where they are assassinated with firearms and throw the bodies into the Caroní river, according to the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office. Cristóbal’s body was recovered on May 1, 2017.
Three Cicpc agents, a policeman from the Caroní municipality, a member of the GNB, an employee of the Ferruchi family, and two merchants participated in subduing the victims, transferring them to the place where they were killed, and protecting it.
The Public Ministry determined that Guido Jiménez Ferruchi was the head of an organized group “to carry out illegal actions, such as the purchase of gold items of dubious origin, and in the event of any problem, to carry out actions such as those indicated above where caused the death of one person and the other is missing after also receiving shots to the head and throwing them into the waters of the Caroní River where they disappear so as not to leave traces.”
You’re stuck in the trial.
An attempt was made to prosecute these people in the Bolívar state courts, but it was unsuccessful as multiple incidents arose.
For this reason, on November 11, 2021, the Criminal Chamber of the TSJ ordered the file to be brought to Caracas, which is distributed in the 6th Trial Court, an instance that sentenced the defendants to serve a sentence of 10 years in prison, then that they admit their participation in the facts.
The Public Ministry did not agree with that decision and filed an appeal which was declared inadmissible by the Court of Appeals of Caracas (Room 1).
Faced with this situation, the Public Ministry goes to the Criminal Chamber, whose magistrates annulled the trial where the defendants admitted the facts and were sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Chamber found that “procedural principles and guarantees of public order, inherent to effective judicial protection and due process” were violated.
When reviewing the file, the magistrates found that the five defendants stated at the hearing at the start of the trial that they did not wish to admit the facts. And despite this, the 6th Trial Court of Caracas, headed by Elizabeth Atallah Gesser, sentenced them for allegedly having admitted the criminal acts.
Another defect detected by the Criminal Chamber is that the judge dismissed two crimes, after the defendants had admitted to being involved in them: vehicle theft and criminal association. The magistrates say that Judge Atallah Gesser “was prevented” from changing that legal classification.
Faced with such irregularities, the magistrates decreed the absolute nullity of the trial. Consequently, they ordered that the case proceed with the urgency, to convene the parties to hold the oral and public trial, “regardless of the indicated defects.”
The magistrates also ordered to maintain the deprivation of liberty against the five defendants. They also sent a certified copy of the sentence to the General Inspectorate of the Court for the purposes of initiating the disciplinary proceedings against the lawyer Elizabeth Atallah Gesser, judge of the 6th Trial Court of Caracas.
