2024-09-04 17:07:16
Defense lawyers for former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez on Wednesday condemned Venezuela’s attorney general’s office for refusing to receive a document explaining why he did not testify in court. A criminal investigation was launched into him following the July presidential election..
Lawyer José Vicente Haro told the media that officials at the prosecutor’s office refused to receive the document, citing technical flaws in its data system.
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Gisela Salomón and Joshua Goodman The Associated Press
Harrow said Gonzalez was willing to testify but did not show up for the subpoena because “he found himself in a position where he was defenseless and he had been prejudged to commit a crime and the fact that it was not inherently a crime” was being blamed on him. As if they were committing a crime.
The document also calls on the prosecutor’s office to restore “proper respect for the constitution” and “refrain from attempts to judicialize or criminalize actions or considerations of a political nature.”
The defense lawyer emphasized that Gonzalez’s right to “the presumption of innocence” was violated. On Monday, a judge handling terrorism-related cases issued an arrest warrant for the former diplomat at the request of the attorney general’s office.
Gonzalez was quoted as announcing
Gonzalez has been summoned three times by the prosecutor’s office, the last time on August 30, to testify in an investigation into the release of election records that, according to the opposition coalition, showed he received more votes than President Nicolás Maduro on July 28.
Maduro, who is seeking a third term, was declared the winner by the pro-government majority National Electoral Council (CNE), which secured 6.4 million votes for the president and 5.3 million for himself. Sri Lanka.
The opposition, on the other hand, insists that the records in its possession – copies collected by polling station witnesses and disclosed through digital platforms – show that its candidates received 7.3 million votes and Maduro 3.3 million.
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The results released by the CNE were widely questioned by the opposition and the international community due to a lack of transparency.
Facing criticism, Maduro asked the Supreme Court, made up of government judges, to issue an expert opinion on the electoral process. This proves Maduro’s victory on August 22 It also pointed out in the resolution that the vote counting results announced by the opposition were false.
According to the prosecutor’s request, Gonzalez is wanted on suspicion of “usurpation of office, forgery of official documents, instigation of non-compliance with the law, computer crimes, association crimes and criminal conspiracy.”
Gonzalez, 75, has not been seen in public since July 29, joining opposition leader Maria Collina Machado in reporting persecution by authorities. The former diplomat accused Justice Minister Tariq William Saab of being a “political accuser” who “condemned him in advance”.
Saab, a close Maduro collaborator and former pro-government lawmaker, has repeatedly accused Gonzalez of usurping the power of the electoral body and publishing “allegedly forged or altered documents.”
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