Expert: Money diverted from prison stores to intelligence costs

A financial expert in the investigation against former directors of penal centers Nelson Rouda and Rodil Hernandez announced this Friday that he had not found the documents to target 8,000 208,000 from corporate stores for intelligence spending on the administrations of the two defendants.

The technician recalled that the management manuals of institutional stores in prisons have established that investments in community projects should be made in favor of the prison population and for infrastructure improvements in prisons.

“I have not found any documents to show that this money from the investigation costs will help improve the conditions for the prison population,” the expert before the judges of the Fifth Penal Court said.

He promised to find several checks in favor of about six employees of the penal centers who received a portion of that money, but said he did not know the purpose of it.

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Prior to the trial, one of the attorneys said two former officials “used funds from corporate stores outside of what the law allows.”

He added that the diversion of 8,000 to 208,000 in intelligence costs by Rouda and Hernandez had been credited, but that these funds were not supported by the law regulating corporate stores.

Attorney’s Office Hernandez Fraud 1 121,238.00; 87,154.00 has been credited, along with the illegal administration of Rawda

He is one of six lawyers prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office against two former prison officials. Other witnesses for the prosecutor’s office are former public defense ministers David Munguna Bayes and Benito Laura.

According to judicial sources, they confirmed that the Directorate of Penal Centers had sent money from corporate stores to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security to intelligence and counter-intelligence.

“The public prosecutor’s office intended to establish with them the existence of funds from corporate stores privately. Now they want to prove that they are private because they are accusing the administration of fraud, which is even more paradoxical. They said they were public funds, which is why they acted arbitrarily on them, here they are already private funds, which is a contradiction, ”said Manuel Sasan, a bodyguard of the accused former officers.

He added that they also want to establish that there are intelligence costs that “these companies have special funds to deal with risk situations to detect potential threats against prison people, authorities or the public.”

Sackon asserted that Munguna Bayes and Laura’s statements were “descriptive in nature” and that they were “not symptoms, but orientation, how things were handled, those who were on that date, it was not an accusation, it was simply explanatory.”

Defense attorneys presented the testimonies of four security witnesses in support of the two former prison officials.

This is the second case against Rouda and Hernandez since they were first acquitted by a fourth sentence court. The prosecutor’s office requested that the verdict be overturned, and the First Criminal Court agreed with him and ordered a retrial.

A fifth sentencing court has been appointed for this second trial, which is expected to end this Friday.

During the development of the investigation, The @FGR_SV In order to convict the former officers, the evidence obtained during the investigation will be presented. pic.twitter.com/RGSY38aqwP

– Attorney General of the Republic of El Salvador (GFGR_SV) July 9, 2021