Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office on Monday requested the arrest of Edmundo González Urrutia, who claims to have won the presidential elections of July 28 in which the current president Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed the winner, amid allegations of fraud.
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The Public Prosecutor’s Office published on its social networks a copy of the request to a court with jurisdiction in terrorism of the “arrest warrant against citizen Edmundo González Urrutia” for alleged election-related crimes, including “disobedience of laws”, “conspiracy”, “usurpation of functions” and “sabotage”.
Gonzalez Urrutia, 75 years old, He was called to testify before the prosecutor on three occasions. He did not attend, although the third summons coincided with a nationwide blackout on Friday, August 30.
The diplomat – in hiding since July 30 – argued that the Public Ministry acted as a “political accuser” that would subject him to a process “without guarantees of independence and due process.”
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Edmundo Gonzalez
EFE
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The subpoenas were focused on the website where the opposition published copies of more than 80% of the voting records, which assures proof of González Urrutia’s victory on July 28 and Maduro’s fraud. Those documents were dismissed by Chavismo and the Supreme Court ordered an investigation after validating the official result of the National Electoral Council (CNE), which declared Maduro the winner with 52% of the votes. But it did not publish the details of the table-by-table counting as required by law.
Maduro has called for jail time for González Urrutia and opposition leader María Corina Machado, also in hiding. He holds them responsible for acts of violence in the post-election protests, which left 27 dead – two of them soldiers. almost 200 injured and more than 2,400 arrested.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab had already announced a criminal investigation against both of them for “incitement to insurrection” military, after a call to the military to recognize González Urrutia’s victory.
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AFP
