The decision to release the accused stylist, Jhonier Leal, brother of the murdered Mauricio Leal Hernández, whose death occurred on November 21, 2021, would be in the hands of Judge 18 of Bogotá’s guarantee control.
The reasons why the defense of the accused, led by jurist Daniel Peña, would be requesting Leal’s freedom, would have been based on an apparent “expiration of terms”, since, according to what has been discussed in the discussion space , the accused has not been subjected to any ruling, after two years of deprivation of liberty.
The crimes that Leal Hernández is accused of are aggravated homicide and concealment of material evidence and are related to the bodies found on November 22, 2021 in La Calera, Cundinamarca.
Thus, in the morning hours of January 10, 2024, the hearing was held in which the legal reasons that would lead to the possible freedom of Jhonier Leal were presented, by virtue of alleged postponements and extensions in the development of judicial activity.
However, jurists such as Prosecutor Mario Burgos have presented arguments opposing Peña’s request, in view of an allegedly irregular, “unfair” count of the scheduled dates in the midst of all the procedural activity.
In the same way, Burgos has denounced postponements and suspensions of some hearings in which health excuses have even been reported on Leal’s part that have not been medically confirmed.
Even so, the count of days presented by the counterparty would not be attributed, fundamentally, to the judicial system, but to Leal’s defense, which would have more than 42 days of extensions only until the end of 2022.
As a consequence, the prosecutor’s position has determined to allege that the counting of the days of suspension that lawyer Daniel Peña has considered is “excessive”, so that it could be an “abuse of resources” in the course of the process.
Peña’s position
The defense of Leal Hernández, prosecuted for the murder of his brothers and his mother Marleny Hernández, has requested his release, arguing that 725 days have passed since his arrest without a concrete decision in the trial.
The petition was addressed by lawyer Daniel Peña to the 18th guarantee control judge of Bogotá, who took as a reference that since January 15, 2022, when the security measure was ordered, only hearings have been held without reaching a final verdict, while some of the postponements would not, according to their argument, be attributed to the defense itself, but to judicial processes.
Leal Hernández’s legal representative during the hearing has highlighted the complexity of the case due to some events that have marked the delay in the development of the process: the failure of a “pre-agreement”, the resignation of the defendant’s previous lawyer and, in the same measure, several challenges.
Furthermore, Daniel Peña emphasized that on his part, the suspension is not due to dilatory maneuvers and the rush for a resolution, but rather aims to defend “the right to due process and a legitimate defense.”
He has expressed that throughout the discussion space that his client’s procedural rights have been violated by questioning the validation of relevant evidence to establish his innocence, an issue that has delayed the activity leading to the trial.
Thus, he also stressed that these circumstances should not be interpreted as tactics to prolong the trial and recognized the extensive periods between hearings, but that the process will continue in February 2024 and that the conclusions and a final sentence are still awaited. With Infobae