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 set a target of 8,000 to 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 support 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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Before the trial began, one of the attorneys assured that the two former officers had “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

The financial expert was one of six attorneys presented 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 Penalty Centers had sent money from corporate stores to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security for intelligence and counter-intelligence.

“The public prosecutor’s office intended to establish that they had funds privately from corporate stores. They now want to prove that they are individuals because they are accused of fraudulent management, which is even more paradoxical. That’s why they put arbitrary actions on him, here they are already private funds, which is a contradiction, ”said Manuel Sachsen, 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, by those 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 demanded 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 To obtain convictions against former officers, present evidence obtained during the investigation. pic.twitter.com/RGSY38aqwP

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