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‘The Prosecutor’s Office does not have the budget for the immediate creation of specialized units for the extinction of property,’ says Diana Salazar
Posted On 16 Oct 2020
The State Attorney General, Diana Salazar, suggested to the Assembly’s Citizen Participation Commission that, through a transitory bill in the Organic Law for the Recovery of Goods of Illicit or Unjustified Origin or Destination, grant a term of at least six months for the implementation and training of specialized units in domain extinction.
‘The Prosecutor’s Office does not have the budget for the immediate creation of specialized units for the extinction of property,’ says Diana Salazar
‘The Prosecutor’s Office does not have the budget for the immediate creation of specialized units for the extinction of property,’ says Diana Salazar
“La Fiscalía General del Estado no cuenta con el presupuesto necesario para cumplir de forma inmediata con la creación de las unidades especializadas en extinción de dominio (…) los estándares mundiales reconocen contar con doce agentes fiscales por cada cien mil habitantes y para la región se sugiere que sea al menos ocho, pero en Ecuador contamos con una tasa de 4.9 agentes, lo que implica que primero se debería suplir la brecha existente y junto con esto incorporar las nuevas unidades y profesionales”, dijo Salazar.
This was one of the observations made by the attorney general to the draft Law of Extinction of Domain, whose report for second debate is prepared by the Citizen Participation Commission. Salazar also pointed out that the procedure must be proper and independent of any other criminal or non-criminal process, that the grounds for the extinction of ownership should not be anchored to specific criminal types because those that previously contained prescribable and imprescriptible crimes .
Regarding “retrospectivity”, the prosecutor said that there is a “vagueness of the norm” since it is not said what it is and how it will be applied, that the principle of “dynamic burden of proof” should govern for extinction processes of domain because it is an action of patrimonial content and of real character.
He added that the reserve in the investigation phase aims to protect the information with which the Prosecutor’s Office seeks to determine the illicit and that the term for the patrimonial investigation should not be a maximum of twelve months due to the complexity of tracking the money, but 24 months. In addition, all the precautionary measures established in the bill for both phases must be maintained and the institutional framework for international cooperation must be strengthened.
“It is important that the Law establishes that the monetization of the assets constituted as special assets will be destined to the institutions that intervene in the process of extinction of domain (…) the percentage that will be destined for the fight against corruption and the intervening institutions ”, he added.
The project establishes that a percentage of no less than 80% of what has been recovered will be used for health, education and comprehensive protection programs for children and adolescents in conditions of double vulnerability. (I)
