2023-12-29 14:08:21
The Committee of Relatives of Political Prisoners of El Salvador (COFAPPES) accused the Salvadoran Government on Thursday of keeping Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde, former Minister of Security, and Ramón Roque, former Inspector General of Penal Centers, under “kidnapping”, who remain in custody. prison despite a court order for his release.
Ivania Cruz, COFAPPES lawyer, told journalists that the authorities have refused to comply with the order that allows them to continue a criminal process in freedom, a situation that she called “a kidnapping by the Salvadoran State of these people.” She added that the detainees have no communication with their families and that her defense lawyers have not been able to have contact with them either.
Cruz stated that they have received letters from humanitarian organizations and “international allies”, who also denounce that “it is unfair that freedom was ordered more than two weeks ago and that to date it has not been fulfilled.”
“We even have international support where the resolution to free Mauricio Ramírez and Ramón Roque, who to date is kidnapped by the Government of El Salvador, has already been announced,” he added.
The lawyer pointed directly to the general director of Penal Centers, Osiris Luna, and to the prison management The hope, known as mariona facility located near the capital, to refuse to comply with the resolution issued by the Court that will hold a trial for the alleged irregular management of resources in prisons.
On December 21, COFAPPES asked the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the refusal of the prison authorities, which would be committing the crimes of contempt of court, deprivation of liberty and arbitrary acts.
The former minister’s arrest occurred in September 2021 and the Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of allegedly being involved in the embezzlement of approximately $14 million from prisons during the Administration of Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019).
After the capture, the attorney general, Rodolfo Delgado, assured that the Sánchez Cerén Executive allowed the organization ASOCHANGE managed the stores inside the prisons “without any State control”, which “gave rise to creating a mechanism to be able to profit.”
Ramírez Landaverde was appointed Minister of Justice in January 2016. Previously, he had served as general director of the National Civil Police from 2014 to 2016 and as deputy director of that entity between 2012 and 2014.
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