Two former agents will be the first convicted in the Balda case

Ecuadornews:

The brief trial against Raul Ch. And Diana F. will be resolved this Tuesday at the trial evaluation and preparatory hearing to be held in the National Court of Justice.

The former agents of Intelligence of the Police, Raul Ch. And Diana F., two of the six processed by the kidnapping of the politician Fernando Balda, happened in 2012 in Bogota-Colombia, will be submitted tomorrow to brief judgment.

It will be the first part of the trial evaluation and preparatory hearing on this case called for this Tuesday by the sole judge of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court of Justice (CNJ), Daniella Camacho. The abbreviated procedure is a type of rapid judgment that is given if certain rules of article 365 of the Comprehensive Criminal Code (COIP) are met.

The main one is that the suspects accept to have committed the crime. Another requirement is that the Office of the Prosecutor propose to the judge this maximum route until the trial preparatory hearing, explained jurist Jorge Acosta. Diego Chimbo, lawyer of Raul Ch and Diana F., with the due anticipation sent the request so that their defendants were submitted to this procedure.

The hearing will be held on the same day as the proceeding where the prosecutor Paúl Pérez will present the opinion. The criminal and professor Ramiro Román clarifies that in exchange for accepting his guilt, the former agents may receive a lower penalty.

The Criminal Code says that when the shortened trial is applied, the defendants benefit from a reduction of sentence up to one third of the penalty. The judge of the case, Daniella Camacho, must evaluate that the defendants have cooperated with the Office of the Prosecutor from the second day in which the fiscal instruction was opened.

Chimbo said in previous statements that his defendants “have provided very important, valuable and fundamental information to clarify the facts.” According to the criminal law, when a cooperation is given and the data is corroborated and effective, the defendants receive other legal benefits, for example special protection or reduction of their sentences. (I)

Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/judicial/12/casobalda-condenas-chicaiza-correa