The hearing lasted almost 9 hours, completion of evidence and final arguments in the scandal involving former presidential candidate, Rodolfo Hernández, in alleged corruption due to undue interest in the contract with Vitalogic, an entity that would manage new technologies for the El Carrasco landfill.
The tenth criminal judge of the circuit decided to condemn him because he maintains that there is sufficient evidence to show that Hernández and his son Luis Carlos were interested in benefiting a specific contractor.
He reported at the hearing that the main testimony that condemned Rodolfo was that of José Manuel Barrera, former manager of the Cleaning Company, EMAB.
“It was learned of several meetings where Vitalogic technology was discussed in which the Skull was mentioned, who would be the contractor. A brokerage contract was signed, emails were found,” says the judge.
However, the judge announced that he will not order the capture and the former mayor of Bucaramanga will be released, based on the fact that he will soon turn 79 years old and due to his health conditions, as he has terminal cancer.
“The immediate arrest will not be ordered because there is the possibility that the defense lawyer will challenge the decision, in this way the presumption of innocence will be reestablished, Rodolfo will be free,” says the judge.
In the middle of the hearing, Hernández burst into tears and said that he had terminal cancer:
“My soul is clean. My heart is at peace. I am not obliged to prove the impossible. What never happened. I believe that with this I end my intervention, but not before, Mr. Judge, thanking not only you but all the members of the bench. Thank you, you answered my call for the doctor to treat me. I have terminal cancer, (cries) thank you for letting him treat me. I thought of everything, except ending up prosecuted for things that I did not do,” he says in a hearing in who highlighted that he is innocent and only had the interest that Bucaramanga would have a better future in the garbage.”
Thus, the type and length of sentence for Rodolfo Hernández is still unknown. The judge gave a date for reading the sentence, which was scheduled for June 13 at 2:00 p.m.
While this time passes, a Forensic Medicine examination was requested to show the reality and diagnosis of the disease that Rodolfo Hernández suffers from.
The audience
The former mayor of Bucaramanga denied hosting a meeting in his apartment in the Cabecera neighborhood with the former manager of the Cleaning Company, EMAB, José Manuel Barrera, and other officials.
Barrera accused him of being persuaded at the engineer’s property to sign the contract with the Vitalogic company, or else he could be fired. This would be the basic evidence of this scandal.
As revealed by the Prosecutor’s Office, there is strong evidence that Rodolfo Hernández and his son, Luis Carlos Hernández, were interested in the contract being made with the new technology company.
The accusing body reported that there are several emails that were sent in the pre-contractual phase so that Vitalogic’s anticipated proposal was known.
In the subject it says: rubbish advice proposal.
Lawyer Jhon Franco, representative of victims empowering Bucaramanga, and Oscar Sarmiento, representative of the Attorney General’s Office, requested a conviction, as did the Prosecutor’s Office, maintaining that there was compelling evidence of undue interest in contracts.
For his part, Rodolfo Hernández’s defense lawyer, Jorge Ruíz, specified that the meeting in the Premier building, where the engineer lives, never took place and could never be confirmed.
He explained that José Manuel Barrera never gave an exact date and time of that meeting and only rambled that it was between June and July 2016, however, it was never evident with security cameras or with the registration when entering the property at the goal. Support that the engineer also declared at the hearing.
“What did the Prosecutor’s Office prove? César Fontecha could have been brought into this process to say if there was a meeting. Because he did not bring the contractor Alarcón, it was not proven that the meeting existed. Evidently, there is a serious discrepancy, a lack of activity of the organ, there is a multiplicity, this leads me to beg you to review all the sections, defend the honor of Rodolfo Hernández, the Dignity of this man who is sick.
Melissa Múnera Zambrano
EL TIEMPO correspondent – Bucaramanga.
Write to me at: [email protected]