Prosecutor’s Office noticed José Serrano for recording with Carlos Pólit

Ecuadornews:

The inquiries will begin with José Serrano. The President of the Assembly was summoned at 10:00 today (March 5, 2018) to the Office of the prosecutor to explain what he knows about the conversation he had with Carlos Pólit, the ex-congressman fugitive in Miami and accused of alleged concussion.

This is the first of a series of proceedings to be carried out by the prosecutor, Fabián Salazar, who is in charge of the case.

This file began after the General Attorney, Carlos Baca, divulged a conversation of four and a half minutes, in which the voices of Serrano and Pólit are heard .

According to Baca, the audio reveals how they both conspire against him. “I have left in evidence to the country that this audio exists where the President of the Assembly tells the fugitive of justice, ‘we must get off Baca’ because it is a danger.”

Serrano must deliver his version voluntarily and is expected to do so at the General Attorney’s Office in Quito. However, until yesterday (March 4) the legislator had not announced whether or not to go with his lawyer.

After this diligence, Salazar will convene a second technical expertise in audio recognition. This is an expertise that will be carried out by two Criminalistics experts and that consists of transcribing the talk.

Judge Rocío Pérez, of Penal Guarantees of Pichincha, was the one who authorized this test.

The Penal Code (article 477) states that this analysis will be conducted in a reserved hearing in which the parties or the investigated parties may attend.

Hernán Ulloa, a lawyer for Polit, said that until yesterday the prosecution had not yet cited him. “Nor does it make sense to go because Mr. Polit is not, formally, being investigated or procedural part.”

Salazar indicated that this analysis will also serve to establish whether any of the interlocutors enjoy court jurisdiction.

Serrano does not currently appear in the file, but if his participation in the recording is judicially verified, the case must go to the General Attorney’s office, according to the Judicial Function Law (Article 192, numeral 5). This would happen because Serrano enjoys national court jurisdiction.

However, Baca has already indicated that he will not be able to take charge of the file because he acts as a possible victim. In that scenario, the file would go to Thania Moreno, who subrogates the Prosecutor. According to the Judicial Function Law (article 47), she acts when there is temporary and justified absence from the Attorney General.

But the researcher will not be able to take charge of the case either, because it was pointed out by Baca in the case of the audios.

The Criminal Code regulates these situations. The norm says that a prosecutor must excuse himself from a file if he has “enmity or open friendship”, either with the victim or with the suspects. Last week, Baca accused Moreno of being “the friend” spoken of in the conversation.

He also pointed out that the lawyer persecutes him, because he opened an investigation into an alleged report from the Comptroller General about reserved expenses of the Senain , where it is said that Baca would have received a salary when he directed the Commission of September 30, although the charge was without remuneration.

The Surrogate Prosecutor has denied such relationship and on Friday held that the identity of “the friend” should be asked “to the gentlemen who intervene in the conversation” filtered.

With the two highest authorities of the Prosecutor’s Office disqualified, who will handle the case? The ex-prosecutor Washington Pesántez considers that this is the first time that such a situation occurs and points out that there is no regulation to regulate it.

“Having a legal vacuum, it should correspond to the best-rated prosecutor on the scale to handle the file,” he says.

On the other hand, the Law of the Judicial Function indicates that in case of any “void, doubt or obscurity”, the Judicial Council will resolve through new regulations. That says in one of its transitory provisions.

The investigation is in reserved phase. The Comprehensive Penal Code (Article 580) states that at this stage, prosecutors must gather all possible elements to decide whether to charge charges or not against suspects of a crime. (I)

Source: http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/fiscalia-citacion-joseserrano-grabacion-carlospolit.html