Erring deputies dodging justice

THE SUPREME COURT’S  shelving of a case against a CD Deputy  for election irregularities has sectors of civil society have expressing  fears that pending criminal cases against deputies for the use of state funds for political purposes in the 2014 elections will go unpunished.

The Supreme Court arcgived  a case against CD Deputy Carlos Afu without considering the fact that the Tribunal Electoral(TE)  had completed an administrative process in the matter.

Asked about the decision of the court, TE Magistrate Eduardo Valdés Escoffery said that a full review of the case will be made.

Former TE Magistrate Guillermo Marquez said “it is obvious that the court is refusing responsibility for investigations.”

Annette Planells, of the Independent Movement (Movin), said that “surely these cases will remain unpunished.”

In some of the cases, election results that were thrown out by the TE due to the use of state resources by candidates did not result in any criminal investigations against the candidates.

In addition to Afu, other deputies similarly charged are Mariela Vega, Hector Aparicio, Miguel Fanovich, Noriel Salerno and Manuel Cohen.