Chihuahua ex-prosecutor stays free as the FGR accuses him
A state judge ruled out pretrial detention for the former attorney general. He will decide Thursday whether to send the case to trial, and the federal prosecutor's office pursues a separate charge.
A criminal-procedure judge in Chihuahua rejected the pretrial detention that the state prosecutor's office sought against César Jáuregui Moreno, the state's former attorney general. The hearing on Sunday, Oct. 18, lasted more than ten hours, according to Infobae. The judge imposed precautionary measures and set the hearing to resume Thursday at 10:00 a.m. Mexico City time, when he will decide whether to send the case to trial.
Separately, the Attorney General's Office (FGR), Mexico's federal prosecutor, filed its own accusation. Its head, Ernestina Godoy, said Jáuregui allegedly committed treason, a crime against national security. According to the FGR, he ordered and coordinated an operation involving CIA agents in El Pinal, in the municipality of Morelos, without federal authority and without a prior case file.
The defense rejects both accusations. "It is political persecution, no doubt about it," said lawyer Luis Villegas Montes, quoted by El Imparcial. Members of the opposition National Action Party (PAN) point at Gov. Maru Campos. Campos' position on the arrest did not appear in the reports reviewed.
The charges
The state prosecutor's office accuses him of unlawful exercise of public service and collusion, each carrying two to five years in prison. The precautionary measures include handing over his passport and visa, signing in monthly and having no contact with witnesses. The judge did not accept an electronic ankle monitor.
The operation dismantled a clandestine synthetic-drug lab. On the way back, a road accident killed four people: two Chihuahua public servants and two Americans, according to El Universal. Jáuregui left the state prosecutor's office on April 27.
Infobae reports that the FGR served the federal warrant minutes after the state hearing and that he would be moved to the Altiplano prison. The FGR and the court had not confirmed that version when this story was written, and the sources differ on the dates of the arrest and the operation.
All of the above is each prosecutor's theory: until there is a verdict, Jáuregui is presumed innocent. Thursday's ruling will show whether the state case continues and how it fits with the federal one.
