El Universo: Defendants Will Appeal the Sentence and Ask For The Annulment of the Legal Process

Defense lawyers of former opinion editor of El Universo Newspaper, Emilio Palacio, its directors and El Universo Company, will use appeal and nullity options to annul the sentence issuedby the 15 ° temporary judge of Criminal Guarantees yesterday, Juan Paredes towards the slander complaint filed by President Rafael Correa.The Code of Criminal Procedure grants the submittion of legal objections  within three business days after the sentence. Emilio Palacio and Brothers Carlos, Cesar, and Nicolas Perez and were sentenced to three years in prison and a bill of $ 30 million in total, while El Universo Company has being asked to pay $10 million.Palacio’s lawyer, Leon Roldos, described the sentence as “null, it lacks of legal ethics.” “A process in which the audience is  justified in a day and the final resolution is ready fifteen minutes the day after, shows that there was no analysis, especially because the judge had just been reinstated in the process,” said Roldós.The attorney also indicated that the process has several grounds for revocation: “first, it insists on trying a legal entity (CA Universe) which is not an individual and thus cannot commit criminal defamation and is sentenced separately; second, procedurally, Judge Monica Encalada, who took the process after the disqualification of Sucre Garces had no jurisdiction to act, and third: there are constitutional violations by not allowing the defense of the accused”.

“The fight continues, we are not defeated,” said Emilio Palacio and asked the public to mobilize in defense of life and freedom in the country. “We must go to defend freedom and democracy against a tyranny whose sole purpose is to fill their pockets with millions of dollars and send dissidents to jail,” wrote Palacio in an e-mail invitation for a strike to be held outside El Universo facilities planned for today at 16h00 (local time).

The appeal will insist that the infringement (defamatory libel) does not exist.

Source: El Universo Newspaper