- "It's a lie. I didn't do it. I feel disappointed," Pérez assured after hearing the ruling.
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| Former Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina attends a hearing where he was sentenced to 16 uncommutable years in prison for the crimes of illicit association and customs fraud by the High Risk Court B in the so-called La Línea case |
The former president of Guatemala Otto Pérez Molina, sentenced to 16 years in prison for a case of customs corruption
Former Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina (2012-2015) was found guilty this Wednesday for the crimes of illicit association and customs fraud, in a case of customs corruption that led to the fall of his government in 2015.
Pérez Molina and his vice president, Roxana Baldetti, received a sentence of 16 years in prison each, eight for crime, in a case baptized by the authorities in 2015 as La Línea.
The Court of Higher Risk "B" of the Guatemalan Judicial Organization determined in its sentence, which began in the morning, that both were aware of the illegal operations of the customs fraud structure that operated in the ports of Guatemala between 2012 and 2015.
The judge in charge of the court, Jeannette Valdés, decided to sentence former President Pérez Molina for "assisting" in the global plan of the corruption structure, which illegally regulated the collection of taxes from importers at the customs of the Central American country.
However, the court decided to acquit the ex-presidents of the crime of illicit enrichment, arguing that the prosecution failed to establish precisely whether there was an abnormal increase in assets.
It's a lie. I did not do it. I feel disappointed
"It's a lie. I didn't do it. I feel disappointed after seven years waiting for this and hearing this sentence," former President Pérez Molina told reporters after learning of the court's decision.
They received "bribes"
According to the accusation of the Prosecutor's Office, the high command of the structure kept 61 percent of the illegal charges made by the illegal customs network.
"Having the opportunity to do a decent job and responding faithfully to the political constitution, they deviated from their duty to receive bribes," judge Valdés declared in relation to the leaders of the criminal structure.
In October, the Prosecutor's Office had asked the court to hand down a sentence of 30 years in prison for the presidential couple and a fine of 9.3 million dollars.
During the sentence, Judge Valdés assured that the accusation had inconsistencies that led to acquittals in favor of some of the 29 defendants in the case.
"Some of the accusations lacked details and that is why they do not allow us to issue a sentence," detailed the court, which began the oral and public debate last January.
Among those acquitted are the former heads of the Superintendence of Tax Collection (SAT) Omar Franco and Carlos Muñoz, considering that the Prosecutor's Office failed to prove that both were part of the criminal structure.
A case revealed in 2015
The La Línea case was revealed in April 2015 by the extinct International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig), which caused the fall of the government of the now convicted Pérez Molina.
In addition, this case is considered emblematic since it was the first of a series of investigations led by Cicig that revealed various criminal structures embedded in the State of Guatemala.
Pérez Molina and Baldetti are also accused of other million-dollar cases of corruption during their government.
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