Guatemalan goes back to court, jail

For ex-president, no bail from judge yet

Guatemala’s former President Otto Perez Molina said Friday after a night in custody, “No jail is good.”
Guatemala’s former President Otto Perez Molina said Friday after a night in custody, “No jail is good.”

GUATEMALA CITY -- Otto Perez Molina was back in court Friday after spending his first night as an ex-president in military custody. Perez Molina's jailing followed a historic day in which he resigned and Guatemala's Congress swore in Vice President Alejandro Maldonado to serve the remainder of the term.

The judge in the corruption and fraud investigation against Perez Molina had ordered the former president held in custody until the hearing reconvened in the morning.

"The first thing I want to deny, I don't belong to 'La Linea,'" Perez Molina said Friday, referring to the fraud scheme.

Prosecutors tried to show the judge that Perez Molina did know of the group's activities.

Perez Molina had left the court the day before under heavy police guard and was later seen entering a military barracks in the capital.

On Friday, Perez Molina, 64, said he had been uncomfortable overnight and slept little. "No jail is good," he said.

"I hope the judge gives me an alternative," Perez Molina said in reference to being granted bail or house arrest.

The hearing wrapped in the afternoon, and the judge said he would make a ruling Tuesday. Perez Molina was ordered to remain in custody until then at the same military barracks where he spent his first night as an ex-president.

The court is considering allegations that Perez Molina was involved in a scheme in which business leaders paid bribes to avoid import duties through Guatemala's customs agency. He is the first Guatemalan president to resign.

Perez Molina has steadfastly maintained his innocence and reiterated his willingness to face the investigation head-on.

"I have always said I will respect due process," he said. "I do not have the slightest intention of leaving the country."

Uncovered by prosecutors and a United Nations commission known as CICIG, which is investigating criminal networks in the country, the customs corruption scandal involved a scheme known as "La Linea," or "The Line." It is believed to have defrauded the state of millions of dollars.

Prosecutors presented 77 wiretap conversations totaling more than five hours and recorded over multiple days, as well as photographs and seized documents that detailed how the bribes were divvied up.

"The structure under the 1 and 2 received 50 percent, and the 1 and 2 received the other 50 percent" of the bribes, prosecutor Jose Antonio Morales alleged. Prosecutors contend that in wiretap recordings, 1 was a reference to Perez Molina and former Vice President Roxana Baldetti was 2.

Baldetti resigned May 8 after her former private secretary, who remains a fugitive, was named as the alleged ringleader of the scheme.

One recording played twice for the court was of two voices said to be Baldetti and Salvador Estuardo Gonzalez, the alleged financier of the ring, who has also been jailed. Prosecutors argued that it was evidence of a hierarchical relationship between the two, and that they discussed "numbers" and "payments."

At least 100 people are under investigation in connection with "La Linea" case.

Shortly after taking the oath of office Thursday, Maldonado demanded that ministers and top officials submit their resignations so he could form a transition government. He promised an honest and inclusive administration.

Reaching out to protesters who took to the streets against the country's entrenched corruption, he vowed to leave "a legacy of honesty" and restore faith in Guatemala's democracy in his brief few months in office.

"You can't consider your work done," Maldonado said in remarks aimed at all those demanding change. "In what is left of this year, there must be a positive response."

The political drama was the climax of a week in which Perez Molina was stripped of his immunity from prosecution, deserted by key members of his Cabinet and saw his jailed former vice president ordered to stand trial -- all just days before Sunday's election to choose his successor.

A growing protest movement brought together Guatemalans from all walks of life, from business leaders to Roman Catholic Church officials, to demand that Perez Molina step down as the fraud probe expanded to implicate more officials.

Maldonado, a 79-year-old conservative former high court justice, has served as Guatemala's foreign minister and in ambassadorial posts.

He also formerly headed Guatemala's highest court where he presided over much-debated decisions like the one not to extradite former dictator Efrain Rios Montt to face genocide, torture and terrorism charges in Spain.

He proposed three candidates to replace him as vice president: Raquel Zelaya, president of a conservative think tank and signatory to 1990s peace accords that ended Guatemala's civil war; Juan Alberto Fuentes Soria, a former university provost; and Gabriel Medrano, another academic and ex-Supreme Court president.

The shortlist will be sent to Congress on Monday.

Maldonado likely will remain in office until the winner of elections that start this weekend is inaugurated Jan. 14.

A Section on 09/05/2015

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