The Supreme Court would support the idea of ​​an ad hoc prosecutor for the case Odebrecht – Cortes – Justicia



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The plenary chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice will meet on Thursday to decide definitively whether investigations into corruption cases involving the multinational Odebrecht should be led by a prosecutor. ad hocbefore the recent scandals that shake the Attorney General's office. Twenty magistrates from criminal appeal, labor and civil affairs chambers will attend the meeting and study the presentation presented on Wednesday by Judge Gerardo Botero.

Botero, who is part of the Chamber of Labor and is recognized by the Supreme Court as one of the most judicious magistrates, he proposed to his colleagues to appoint a prosecutor ad hoc who is responsible for conducting Odebrecht's investigations. To present this article, Botero studied the recusal presented by the president of the network Veedurías, Pablo Bustos, against the deputy prosecutor María Paulina Riveros, who is in charge of Odebrecht affairs, the Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez s 39 being declared unable to do so. past year.

The deputy prosecutor was implicated because, according to Bustos, he has close relations with Martinez, who was questioned after hearing of the recordings of the Ruta del Sol II controller, Jorge Enano Pizano. In these recordings, Pizano informed Martinez since 2015 – who at the time was a lawyer of Grupo Aval, minority partner of Odebrecht – about irregular payments.

This led to questioning the impartiality of the prosecutor and his substitute. Although the deputy prosecutor, Riveros, did not accept the challenge, the official referred the case to the court, stating that she "accompanied the possibility" that she a prosecutor be appointed. ad hoc "Distort conjectures and questions".

The decision is now in the hands of 20 judges of the Supreme Court, as two agents of the Labor Court have ended their term this week and the magistrate Gustavo Malo is removed from office.

Since this is a simple decision, that is, it does not imply an appointment, it takes 12 votes for Botero's presentation to be accepted.. High court sources said that it was very likely that magistrates would take a decision on the same Thursday in this case, and they claim that in this jurisdiction there would be a favorable environment for accepting Botero's presentation, as a necessary step before the issues that concern the Office of the Attorney General and the institutional framework.

This mechanism is sui generis, so It will not be easy to argue against the legal argument that would be necessary to approve the prosecutor ad hoc. If the final decision is to accept the presentation, the magistrates would ask President Ivan Duque on Thursday to send a short list in order to choose the prosecutor. ad hoc.

Although some judges believe that Bustos' challenge, as such, should be dismissed as it is not part of the proceedings before Odebrecht, or that the laws do not specify how to act in these cases, the document sent by the Attorney General Fernando Carrillo calls for the creation of a "prosecutor's office" ad hoc", Was also taken into account in the badysis. Last week, at the conclusion of a meeting at the Supreme Court, the same prosecutor, Martínez, said that in cases of impediment, he was in agreement with the appointment of a prosecutor by virtue of this figure.

Justice

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