Former Presidency Minister walks free of criminal charges

Charges linking former Minister of the Presidency Demetrio Papadimitriu, with land scandals in Juan Hombrón, have been archived by the Supreme Court.

The ruling by Judge Hernán de León did not deal with the merits of the case but with alleged anomalies in the process, based on a technicality.
The ruling, dated June 28, 15 days before Papadimitriu resigned his office responded to a specific request from Attorney General, Jose Ayu Prado, who in his conclusions warned that the complainant, Wigberto Jaramillo, had presented no summary evidence which is mandatory in proceedings for the alleged commission of the crimes of abuse of authority and violation of the duties of public servants, as initiated on  November 15  2011 against the then minister.
In his filing, Ayu Prado also concluded that the evidence provided by Jaramillo, community leader in Juan Hombrón Cocle, were not proven to link Papadimitriu with the other crimes with which he was charged: embezzlement, trafficking influences, forgery and criminal conspiracy.