Former prosecutor Fabio Martínez was sentenced to seven years in prison for the chuzadas scandal

In the last few hours, the Bogotá Superior Court accepted the pre-agreement that former prosecutor Fabio Martínez Lugo made with the Prosecutor's Office in the case of the telephone shuzada scandal in which the former official was involved. With this pre-agreement Martínez will be sentenced to seven years in prison.

It should be recalled that in this case the former prosecutor 32 of the Directorate Against Criminal Organizations was charged by the investigating body for the crimes of prevarication by action, unlawful violation of communications, procedural fraud and agreement to commit crimes.

As part of the pre-agreement, former prosecutor Martínez had to accept responsibility in the case of illegal interceptions carried out by officials of the Prosecutor's Office and, in addition, he apologized to the community for the damage caused.

He also stated that “with my acceptance of charges, the Colombian justice demonstrated that moving away from legality, even for officials responsible for criminal investigation, has criminal consequences. Therefore, my process must be a subject of reflection for all judicial officials and investigators on the consequences of going beyond the limits of the law.”

At the hearing before the judges of the Tribunal, former prosecutor Martínez acknowledged his responsibility behind the chuzadas scandal. It should be recalled that, since 2019, the year in which members of the CTI captured Fabio Martínez Lugo for this fact, the case against him has been progressing and, at present, the man won a seven-year sentence with a pre-agreement with the Prosecutor's Office.

However, some sources in the case confirmed to W Radio that former prosecutor Martinez could reduce his sentence to up to three years and, therefore, could regain his release in a few months. This would be achieved with good behavior and some benefits, despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office had requested the maximum sentence of 92 months in prison.

In this case, the Prosecutor's Office could only make a simple pre-agreement with the defendant, that is, to voluntarily renounce his presumption of innocence, in exchange for a reduction of sentence equivalent to one third of the possible penalty. However, Martínez Lugo pointed out that his acceptance of charges is not due to a reduction in sentence, but to a “real repentance”.

The Prosecutor's Office established in 2019 that Martínez Lugo was the official of the Prosecutor's Office responsible for sharing all instructions to retired Colonel Jorge Humberto Salinas Muñoz so that they could illegally intercept, and with tools from the Prosecutor's Office, the telephone lines of the Colombian Association of Civil Aviators (Acdac) and of the president for Latin America of the Enel — Codensa Group.

Key dates in the entity's investigation are the dates between December 18, 2017 and January 16, 2018, when Martínez Lugo served as prosecutor 32 of the Directorate Against Criminal Organizations, since during this period of time the former official 'chucked' telephone subscribers belonging to several members of the Colombian Association of Civil Aviators such as Captain Julián Pinzón.

And between June 25 and August 14, 2018, the former prosecutor also illegally intercepted the phones of Felipe Jaramillo Londoño and Jorge Flores, who were also victims of the case. In 2019, the Prosecutor's Office charged Martínez Lugo with these charges, but he had not accepted charges, despite the fact that he was indicted by Luis Carlos Gómez Góngora, formerly coordinator of the Diamond Chamber of the Prosecution.

KEEP READING: