Judge Abelina Cruz, head of the High Risk Court D, closed this Friday, July 26, the criminal case against former presidential candidate Manuel Baldizón for the Odebrecht case, in which he was accused of having used bribe money to finance his electoral campaign in 2015.
Judge Cruz argued that she was closing the case against Baldizón because, as he was not a public official, he could not receive bribes to benefit a company.
The judge made this decision during an intermediate hearing for the case in question.
Baldizón is accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) of money laundering, criminal association and passive bribery.
According to investigations, the Brazilian company Odebrecht allegedly gave bribes to governments to obtain state construction contracts.
Baldizón said at the end of the hearing that “justice has finally been done” and recalled that he had been imprisoned and deported from the US; he also claimed that he had been “politically lynched without just cause or reason.”
“It has become clear that it was all a farce by three characters,” said Baldizón, referring to former Attorney General Thelma Aldana, former Attorney General Juan Francisco Sandoval and “a Colombian.”
He added that the judge’s decision “is unappealable from any perspective, because Baldizón does not appear in any document and, furthermore, I was not a public official, I was not president, I was not a minister and I never managed state resources, but there I was, why, because they wanted to eliminate me politically.”
He warned that he will file lawsuits against those who accused him of acts he says he did not commit.
According to the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity (Feci), Baldizón received funds that were later used to finance his 2015 election campaign, when he was a presidential candidate for the now-defunct Líder party.
According to Baldizón, there is “a lot of evidence” in his favor. “The collaboration agreements of two Brazilians who stole money from the people of Guatemala are null and void. Many things technically show that my responsibility in this case cannot be proven,” he said.
The former presidential candidate argued that he “was not a public official, minister or president.”
“They put me in the spotlight to harm me politically,” he said.
#Manuel #Baldizón #freed #Odebrecht #case #ruling #Judge #Abelina #Cruz
