Caracas, Aug 28 (EFE).- Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced Wednesday that the presidential candidate of the main opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia, will be summoned for the third time as part of an investigation against him for alleged “conspiracy” and other crimes associated with the accusation of electoral fraud made by anti-Chavez supporters.
“There is a third summons that we are going to send you. There are three, according to the jurisprudence of the Criminal Court. A person can be summoned up to three times to, in this case, in his capacity as a suspect, give a statement about an ongoing process (…) which also links disobedience to the law,” said Saab in statements to the media.
He indicated that, in the event that González Urrutia fails to attend this last summons again, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) will announce “in due time” the action “corresponding to what is appropriate based on the laws.”
The prosecutor, who did not specify when the third summons would be issued, reiterated that the investigation is related to the publication of a website, in which the anti-Chavez supporters claim to have uploaded “83.5% of the electoral records” collected by witnesses and members of the table on the night of the elections, to support their claim of fraud in the presidential elections of July 28.
The largest opposition bloc, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), released these records, which the Executive calls “false,” after the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Nicolás Maduro the winner of the elections, and later endorsed by the Supreme Court, which has been questioned by numerous countries.
“If the CNE was good and excellent at allowing Edmundo González to register with several cards (…), why then now that the CNE has given a result, does he prefer, apart from disrespecting, to challenge the CNE and offend those legitimately constituted authorities?” Saab asked.
The Prosecutor’s Office has summoned González Urrutia on two occasions, but he has not appeared before the institution, for the “alleged commission of the crimes of usurpation of functions, forgery of public documents, instigation to disobedience of the law, computer crimes, criminal association and conspiracy,” which carry sentences of up to 16 years in prison.
On Sunday, through a video posted on social media, González Urrutia said that the MP “intends to subject him to an interview without specifying the condition in which he is expected to appear and pre-qualifying crimes that he did not commit.”
In his opinion, the Attorney General “has repeatedly behaved like a political accuser” since – he asserted – “he condemns in advance and now promotes a summons without guarantees of independence and due process.”
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2024-08-30 08:09:10
