Wilman Terán and Maribel Barreno are exempt from scrutiny in their impeachment trial | Politics | News

Wilman Terán, former president of the Judicial Council, and Maribel Barreno, a former member of the group, were not censured for holding public office. The plenary session of the National Assembly on Wednesday evening, July 17, did not approve the censure motion presented by lawmaker Jorge Peñafiel, who had pushed for an impeachment trial against the two former officials, accusing them of failing to perform their duties.

Penafiel’s motion needed 92 votes in favor to pass, but ultimately received 88 votes in favor, 0 votes against, 0 blank votes, and 47 abstentions.

The votes in favor came from the Social Christian Party (PSC), the National Democratic Action Party (ADN), the Construye and Pachakutik movements, as well as independent parliamentary members. The abstentions came from the Coresta Civic Revolution (RC) bloc.

The vote took place around 10:50 p.m., with 16 lawmakers participating in the debate after listening to extensive speeches by the trial questioner, Councilman Jorge Peñafiel, and the two defendants, who presented their arguments and release, respectively.

Plenary Session 944 began on Tuesday, July 16, but was suspended after Barreno attended the plenary session because Congress asks SNAI to transfer Wilman Terán from La Roca prison in Guayaquil, at the request of the Citizens’ Revolutionary Movement. to the Conference Hall in Quito so that he could attend the plenary session in person and exercise his rights of defence.

The meeting resumed with Tran present at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and ended more than seven hours later.

The questioners accused Terán and Barreno of irregularities in the suspension and subsequent dismissal of former National Judge Walter Macias; “arbitrary extensions” of the terms of National Court judges without competition and merit; and irregularities in opposition competition and the merits of National Court judge appointments.

The two former officials have denied the allegations and argued that their actions were legal and within the purview of the Judiciary Committee.

Barreno said in her defense statement on Tuesday that she is being persecuted by the state attorney general’s office and that she has documents to support her claims as she said protected witnesses revealed previously articulated scripts that were used against her and that at least former member Xavier Munoz had considered warning him how they were going to proceed.

On Wednesday, Wilman Terán argued that the sanctions and dismissal of Judge Macías were justified, as he was accused of falsifying documents to obtain his position, among other charges of alleged bribery. He said the vote of the full council was carried out within the normative framework, something Peñafiel refuted.

During his three-hour defense, he showed screenshots of alleged conversations via text messages that he claimed took place in 2023 with prosecutor Diana Salazar.

He said the chats were supposed to be professional but showed the prosecutors were persecuting him. He also said the phone on which the conversations took place did not belong to the prosecutor’s office and that he kept it in a place he did not mention.

Tran touched on several topics during his speech, including the bribery case he sentenced.

In his response to the questioner, Jorge Peñafiel disqualified the messages mentioned by the former Council President, pointing out that they were lies and fake chats that he edited himself using the Photoshop program. “Either you think we are naive or you are a big liar, Mr. Teran, and the lies will not be able to hide from the light,” he claimed.

Lawmakers criticized Tran for staging a “drama” full of lies on the surface.

“This is not about individuals, Mr. Tran and Mrs. Barreno, this is about preventing the tentacles of corruption from reaching into justice, this is about the country, I don’t know how far his games and lies will go,” he said.

In his reply, Barreno noted that it was “absurd” that he was impeached for voting in favor of the dismissal of Judge Macias.

Likewise, Tran said in his response that he was not interested in “a small fee,” but that he was concerned about the integrity of the family. He denied Penafiel’s claim that the text messages were edited.

After the copy phase, the debate among members of the General Assembly began, starting with members of the Oversight Committee, followed by other legislators.

The president of the commission, Correísta Pamela Aguirre, said that among other things, Peñafiel did not individualize the allegations and provide evidence. Her deskmate, Sofía Espín, added that the questioner made four accusations, none of which were proven; that is why the majority of the commission voted in favor of recommending to the plenary session that the impeachment trial be archived.

César Umaginga, on the other hand, agreed with the plaintiffs’ arguments and assured that there was grounds for breach of duty against Terán and Barreno.

Jorge Arceturi said the case for an impeachment trial was clear, commenting that the vote would show which lawmakers would “support impunity” if there were not enough votes to censure.

Despite the conclusion of the impeachment trial in the National Assembly, Wilman Tran and Maribel Barreno will continue to face criminal prosecution for their actions while serving on the Judiciary Committee. (I)