Quito (EFE).- Around 200 witnesses will present the private accusation in the case of the femicide against the lawyer María Belén Bernal, whose authorship has been confessed by her husband, the former lieutenant of the Ecuadorian Police Germán Cáceres, protagonist of the case of sexist violence more Ecuadorian media.
This was announced by Jesús López, lawyer for Elizabeth Otavalo, Bernal’s mother, when he went to the judicial complex where the preliminary hearing for the presentation of evidence by the Prosecutor’s Office and the private prosecution is taking place, with which a judge must decide if a trial is opened against Cáceres.
“You must make a decision on whether this case goes to the next phase, which is the trial, or issues a dismissal order in favor of any of the people processed,” explained the lawyer.
The feminicide of María Belén Bernal
The events occurred in the early morning of September 11, 2022, when María Belén Bernal went to visit Cáceres at the Higher Police School, north of Quito, where he allegedly killed her in her room and later disposed of the body, which He was found ten days later on a hill near the place.
The case aroused great social alarm as the murder occurred inside a police station, and even Otavalo has come to classify it as a State crime, while Cáceres fled and remained unaccounted for until the end of December, when he was captured. In colombia.
López was confident that he had “all the elements of conviction necessary to prove the criminal responsibility of the defendant, as well as the serious omission committed by Alfonso Camacho,” who was at the Higher Police School on the day of the femicide.
Lawyer Jesús López explained that an evaluation and preparatory hearing is taking place this Tuesday.
“We will only announce the witnesses who will attend the next phase, which is the trial, which is approximately 200. However, today no one’s statement will be received, and the judge will make his decision based on documents, reports and expertise” , reported.
justice not revenge
Otavalo assured that “the only thing” he hopes is that “justice be done.”
“We are not looking for revenge, that they run over anyone. I am looking for justice and justice is that, in law, the judge determines who the culprits are,” he noted, noting that there is “a confessed femicide, Germán Cáceres, and we also have a Camacho (sic) by omission.”
She was also confident that all the elements exist to show the judge “how involved Mr. Camacho was and that esprit de corps is not done, because General Camacho is his father. Enough!” she demanded.
Otavalo added that administrative processes were applied to other police officers, “several of them are on leave, but for less than what this Mr. Camacho did.”
“In two hours he was simply acquitted and we cannot allow it. Enough of so much sponsorship, of so much blindness from the State, from the police institution as such, ”he stressed.
revealing audio
And he commented that the audio of his daughter on the day of the event, stolen from the victim’s mobile phone, “is strong evidence to determine the murderers.”
“With that audio it was determined that (cadet) Joselyn Sánchez (who was detained but has since been released) was not involved,” he recalled.
According to Otavalo, Sánchez was not involved “because she is a student at the Police Superior School.” “However, Mr. Camacho is an officer who was working, fulfilling his responsibility and could not help my daughter,” she said.
“He should have provided help and another story out today,” he added before recalling that Cáceres is being held in jail after being expelled from Colombia, where he was located at the end of last December, after almost three months on the run from Justice.
Defense denies omission
On her side, Gladys Terán, Camacho’s lawyer, asserted that they are “totally optimistic” and “convinced” that her defendant is innocent, since they have “evidence that he did not listen to the requests for help.”
“If he had listened to them, which is not the case, he did not have the possibility of preventing the unfortunate death of the lawyer Bernal,” he commented.
On January 12, Cáceres, accused of having murdered his wife on September 11 inside the Police School in Quito, confessed to the femicide, but did not speak of accomplices or accessories after the fact in this case.
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