Due to expiration date, a request for provisional release (parole) was denied to six individuals involved in embezzlement to DIAN (Colombia’s tax and customs authority) by the 8 Criminal Municipal Court in Bogota, acting as Supervisory Court. Due process has been respected and sufficient legal guarantees have been provided to the parties, said the Court.
The defense counsel of Luz Adriana Matamba Sepúlveda, Katerine Cano, Yazmín Viviana Silva, Andrea Botina Montero, Fernando Quiceno Cruz and Erwin Enrique Martínez submitted such request affirming that 360 days were surpassed without resolving their legal status and therefore the time to be granted the provisional release has already exceeded.
However, prosecutor’s office refuted this petition and said that delays were defense’s liability because he/she had frequently requested stays in order to study a large number of evidence material against the accused.
In a number of judgments of the Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Bogota, it has expressed that time is not the only reason to grant this benefit, but objective and subjective factors such as offences complexity, number of prosecuted persons, authorities and parties’ behavior in the legal procedure must be considered. Also the accusing body denoted.
Defendants are accused for conspiracy to commit crimes, assets laundering, illicit enrichment, embezzlement, fictitious export, procedural fraud and ideological forgery of a public document.
Last December 17, the provisional release (parole) was denied due to expiration date by the 47 Criminal Municipal Judge in Bogota, acting as Supervisory Judge to Míriam Teresa Peña Palacios, Antonio Ramón Angulo Hernández and Raúl Vargas who are involved in the same legal action which is investigating who are the responsible for the Dian embezzlement.