Judge rejects ex-ombudsman’s house arrest request

The compliance judge, José Ángel Carrera, denied a request for house arrest to the former Ombudsman, Patria Portugal, sentenced to eight years in jail for embezzlement.

The compliance judge denied the request considering it not viable, during a hearing held at the facilities of the Plaza Ágora Accusatory Penal System.

Portugal, who is sentenced for the crime of embezzlement, requested that she be allowed to serve her sentence under house arrest, but Judge Carrera considered that the detainee does not have a scientifically proven serious illness that would prevent her from serving her sentence in a penitentiary center.

Following the judge’s decision, lawyer Ariel Nuñez Gómez, who represented Portugal, announced an appeal, which will be heard on October 6 in the Superior Court of Appeals.

The judicial process against Portugal is related to two contracts that the former official signed as Ombudsman (April 2011-July 2013). One of them with the company Imaginarium Studio, SA, for an amount of $249,845, for the redesign of the entity’s website, and another for $199,983, for training, awarded to the company En Avant, SA.