The first anti-corruption attorney, Tania Sterling, in the case of alleged irregularities in a millionaire loan from Caja de Ahorros, authorized show-cause orders, search warrants and preventive arrests although the terms of investigation established by law had expired.
This information arises after some litigation lawyers discussed this controversial case of Caja de Ahorros yesterday Sunday at NEXtv.
According to jurists Alfredo Vallarino and Roniel Ortiz, in this case a deferment was requested that was granted, which expired on 7 October this year, however, five days later, attorney Sterling authorized a show-cause order against Riccardo Francolini and four other people against whom, subsequently, a preventive detention was ordered.
Vallarino characterized this situation as an excessive behavior on the part of those who should administer justice.
There is a judiciary precedent in this sense, in which the fifth district criminal judge, Enrique Paniza, ordered the invalidity of the file against Jose Raul Mulino and Alejandro Garuz, high officials of the former administration, for ordering preventive detention of both out of the term for investigation.
This investigation was carried out in May 2015, after a national coverage publication.
Security Council
The presence of agents of the Security Council in the premises of the first anti-corruption attorney the day of the inquest of Riccardo Francolini, which was categorically denied by General Attorney Kenya Porcell, was another of the topics discussed by the lawyers in the television program.
Alfredo Vallarino, who was in the Prosecutor's office during the inquest of Francolini and four other defendants, rejected the statements of General Attorney Porcell and ensured that he was able to spot more than one agent of the Security Council within the judiciary premises.
Arrested for investigation
Roniel Ortiz, litigator lawyer and former representative of the Auxiliary Prosecutor´s office, ensures that the arrests in this investigation were first ordered, and then investigations started.
According to this specialist in criminal law, the way in which this case is being investigated is against any procedural principle.
For this reason, Ortiz explains, before detentions were ordered, an investigation had to be made, which was not the case in this file.
According to lawyer Alfredo Vallarino, this situation has led prosecutor Sterling to order more flexible measures against people who, during the course of the investigation, were found not to appear as having signed the loan in question.
Such is the case of the secretary of the Board of Directors of Caja de Ahorros, Eleonor Samudio de Ávila, who was taken away from her two young daughters for five days.
Pressures
Alfredo Vallarino denounced the existence of pressures coming from influential figures of the government being put over officials of Caja de Ahorros aimed to make them file a complaint.
For this reason, Alfredo Vallarino indicates, there are directors of Caja de Ahorros that want to quit due to the pressures of which they have been subjected to so that the institution is made to become a complainant in this process.
The same fact occurs in the Comptroller´s Office, according to lawyer Roniel Ortiz, who points out that reports are being handled that in this institution there are pressures against auditors for them to put together a case against Riccardo Francolini.
Danger
Vallarino said that trying to make Caja de Ahorros a complainant would be an attack on the heritage of this Bank, before an eventual demand once a court abandoned this case for irregularities which, in his view, have been committed.
