(IPYS/IFEX) – On 20 November 2006, Juan de Jesús Gutierrez, a prosecutor who works for the Ministry of the Prosecutor General (Fiscalía General de la República) and who is authorised to bring charges anywhere within the country, charged journalist Gustavo Azócar with making illegal profits to the detriment of the government, forging a private document […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 20 November 2006, Juan de Jesús Gutierrez, a prosecutor who works for the Ministry of the Prosecutor General (Fiscalía General de la República) and who is authorised to bring charges anywhere within the country, charged journalist Gustavo Azócar with making illegal profits to the detriment of the government, forging a private document and fraud. The preliminary hearing will take place on 19 January 2007 before the Seventh Control Court (Juzgado Séptimo de Control), presided over by Judge Ciro Heraclio Chacón. This event took place in San Cristóbal, southwestern Venezuela.
Azócar faces these charges as result of an investigation ordered by former Táchira State attorney general (procuradora) Ana Casanova, in view of the alleged fraud committed by the journalist when he was the director of Radio Noticias 1060 AM radio station in 2000.
The journalist provided evidence that his conduct was not fraudulent. Expert accountants from the Institute for Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations (Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas, CICPC) also concluded that his conduct was not fraudulent. Prosecutor Gutiérrez, however, has carried on with legal proceedings, deciding that the journalist was implicated in the alleged crimes.
Azócar stated to media that he believes he is being persecuted by Táchira State Governor Ronald Blanco Lacruz, because of the journalist’s critical stance against Blanco’s administration.
