PBI-Guatemala accompanies Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) at hearing of two former state intelligence agents

Published by Brent Patterson on March 22, 2024March 22, 2024

PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“On Friday [March 15] PBI accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm in the hearing of the Military Diary case. The judge decided to accept the substitute measures of liberty requested by the defense of the two accused, José Daniel Monterroso and Edgar Virginio de León Sigüenza, consisting of: Unattended house arrest. Ban to leave the country. Prohibition to relate to persons who are in the process. There is still no date scheduled for the next hearing.”

Prensa Comunitaria explains in more detail:

“The High Risk Court ‘B’, headed by Judge Claudia Ordoñez, decided to grant conditional release to two military officers who are accused of crimes against humanity and forced disappearance in the case of the Military Diary.

The ‘Military Diary’ or ‘Death Dossier’ [is] a document that details chronologically, the way in which state security forces committed a series of crimes.

Among them: kidnapping, forced disappearance, transfer to clandestine detention centers, torture, sexual abuse and the murder of 183 [also reported as 195] people between 1983 and 1985, during the Internal Armed Conflict.

On May 27, 2021, the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office reported the capture of 11 military personnel accused [of these crimes].

This case was handled by Miguel Ángel Gálvez, but the judge resigned from the Judicial Branch (OJ), due to the harassment and criminalization of which he was a victim as a result of rulings issued in that case.

The beneficiaries of alternative measures [granted last week] were José Daniel Monterroso Villagrán and Edgar Virgilio de León Sigüenza. The judge justified her decision on ‘humanitarian grounds’ due to the health problems of the two defendants.

Intelligence officer Monterroso Villagrán was sent to trial for the crimes of forced disappearance and crimes against humanity, to the detriment of Rubén Amílcar Farfán.

[Rubén Amílcar Farfán, was captured on May 15, 1984. According to annotation no. 134 in the military logbook, Farfán was killed (denoted by the code ‘300’). At the time of his disappearance, Rubén was a student at the San Carlos University in Guatemala City.]

Photo: Rubén’s sister Aura Elena Farfan is the founder of the PBI-Guatemala accompanied Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA).

Meanwhile, the case of intelligence specialist sergeant De León Sigüenza was put on hold, due to the resignation of his lawyer and there was no date for the start of the intermediate stage.

[PBI-Guatemala accompanied Human Rights Law Firm] lawyer Francisco Vivar, lawyer for the victims, regretted what happened in the case, since impunity continues to be generated. ‘International conventions and treaties are not being respected. These are crimes classified as serious human rights violations that have other special treatment,’ he said.

‘We will take legal action. As a precedent, the resolutions in which measures have been granted have previously been revoked by the Chambers. In other words, these measures are illegal. It leaves a bad taste because the rights of the victims are being violated,’ he added.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) since 2013.