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El Universo Case: Deputy Judge Freire Completes Hearingroom
Posted On 16 Sep 2011
The hearing for El Universo case planned for today will be carried out as deputy judge Guillermo Freire will replace Judge Primo Diaz, who resigned yesterday to the Second Criminal Chamber of the Provincial Court of Guayas.
Fernando Yávar, member of the Judicial Council of Transition (TYC), defended Freire trying the case despite having been nominated hours before the procedure. “In an oral system, judges are not aware of the trials before the hearings,” he said. “The judge must decide based on what is exposed and presented in open court.” Freire will assume his charge “first thing in the morning” he added.
Henry Moran and Helen Mantilla will be the other two judges who will lead the hearing along with Freire at 10:00 today in the auditorium of the Judicial Council of Guayas. They must decide whether to keep or modify the court ruling given in July, which condemned former director of opinion and three executives of the newspaper to three years imprisonment and to indemnify the president with 40 million dollars for a column that accused him of ordering “shoot discretly and without notice in a hospital full of civilians,” on September 30, 2010.
On the other hand, the defense attorney for Diario El Universo said in an interview with Radio City that “It is an alternative (not attending), we’re still analyzing it, there are some alternatives to present, I do not want to anticipate what will be done”.
