The Constitutional Court (CC) rejected on Monday, July 8, an appeal filed by magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) once morest a resolution of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) that denied a provisional injunction that sought to nullify the decision that suspended them from office in the TREP case, judicial sources reported.
On April 5, an Appeals Court ruled on the situation of the TSE magistrates indicted in the case of alleged irregularities in the acquisition of the Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission System (TREP) and disqualified them from exercising their positions.
The ruling states that the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) filed an appeal once morest the ruling of the Twelfth Court, in which alternative measures were dictated in favor of the magistrates in question.
On that occasion, Judge Karen Chinchilla charged magistrates Irma Palencia, Mynor Franco, Gabriel Aguilera and Rafael Rojas with the crime of fraud.
In addition, the judge had ruled that magistrate Irma Palencia lacked merit for the crime of abuse of authority. The judge also imposed a substitute measure of Q100,000 on each magistrate, so that they might obtain freedom while the case was continued and they might continue with their functions in the TSE.
However, the Criminal Court partially upheld the MP’s appeal and added that the judges are prohibited from continuing to exercise their positions in the TSE until they resolve their legal situation.
In order to resume their duties as head of the TSE, the magistrates appealed to have said prohibition revoked; however, according to the resolution, the CC rejects, “as untimely,” the appeal filed by TSE magistrates Irma Elizabeth Palencia Orellana, Ranulfo Rafael Rojas Cetina, Gabriel Vladimir Aguilera Bolaños and Mynor Custodio Franco Flores.
TREP Case
The TREP system was acquired for Q148 million 850 thousand 250 and the contract was signed on March 15, 2023; however, the Prosecutor’s Office points out that this process had irregularities, which is why it requested the withdrawal of the immunity of the TSE magistrates Irma Palencia, Mynor Franco, Gabriel Aguilera and Rafael Rojas, who following having been stripped of their immunity by the Congress of the Republic on November 30, 2023, left the country and on January 11, the arrest warrants once morest them were confirmed.
Of that account, the lawyer César Calderón, who assists the judges, confirmed that he submitted the document where they put themselves at the disposal of Judge Wendy Coloma, an action that was accepted by the judiciary, but the Prosecutor’s Office for Administrative Crimes challenged the judge.
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