The Supreme Court of Justice acquitted the prosecutor in second instance Guillermo Segundo Diaz Garcia, accused of having helped CTI agents in a corruption case in the municipality of Chiriguaná, Cesar.
The decision revoked the sentence that had been imposed by the Valledupar Judicial District Court against the official for the crime of prevarication by omission.
The Court had considered that Guillermo Díaz García, acting as Chiriguaná sectional prosecutor 24, omitted the duty to request a guarantee control hearing to impart legality to a search and raid operation carried out on March 5, 2015 in the ‘Finca Pachito’ property, located in the village of Boquerón, where they seized contraband merchandise.
For this reason, the Prosecutor’s Office accused Díaz García of favoring former CTI members José Luis Villalobos Contreras and Nelson Ricardo Montalvo Cortina, convicted of having asked him to $30 million to the citizen affected in the raid in exchange for returning their contraband merchandise.
Consequently, Díaz García was charged with the crimes of prevarication by omission, ideological falsehood in a public document and aggravated favoring. However, the Court only considered him responsible for the first aforementioned crime.
But now the Court, during the review of the sentence, concluded that Díaz García nor is he guilty of prevarication of omission.
The Court considered that the bailiffs did not bring the search procedure to the attention of the prosecutor within the time established in the legal framework, therefore it was not mandatory to request the guarantee control hearing.
“The search and search procedure was carried out on March 5, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. Then, the judicial police officers were obliged to submit the corresponding report. 12 hours later, this is at 9:00 p.m. on the same day (March 5, 2015). However, it was proven in court that the report was submitted on March 9, 2015, that is, 4 days after the procedure was completed. Under this specific scenario, the Chamber rules out that the then prosecutor Guillermo Segundo Díaz García was under the obligation to request the hearing described above.”, reads the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice.
Thus, the terms to legalize this procedure before a guarantee control judge had expired.
There is no appeal against this determination, therefore, the prosecutor ends up acquitted of the entire process.