Criminal lawyer Juan David León, attorney for Ricardo Roa Barragán, has just come out to respond to the allegations made by former Hocol executive Luis Enrique Rojas Cuéllar against the defense he is carrying out.
Earlier this Wednesday, June 3, EL TIEMPO revealed statements from Rojas -key witness for the Prosecutor’s Office against Roa in the influence peddling case- according to which Roa’s defense would be illegally using reserved information from Hocol and Ecopetrol to pressure him.
Rojas’s allegations
Rojas told EL TIEMPO exclusively that lawyer Juan David León, attorney for Roa, made before the Attorney General’s Office -in a proceeding on May 15- multiple statements related to internal investigations against him by the compliance area and reserved actions of Hocol S.A. and Ecopetrol.
The case gains relevance because Rojas is the key witness for the Prosecutor’s Office in the case against Roa for influence peddling, linked to the purchase of his apartment 901 -revealed by EL TIEMPO- and his connections with former police officer Juan Guillermo Mancera and gas and oil investor Serafino Iacono.
Rojas also states that he officially requested, through a right of petition, that Hocol and Ecopetrol inform him if there is any disciplinary process, administrative action, ethical procedure, or internal investigation against him. And the response, dated May 22, certified that there is currently no disciplinary process against him and that it is reserved information.
“It is therefore deeply concerning that information whose existence has not even been officially communicated to me has been known, mentioned, and exposed by Mr. Ricardo Roa’s lawyer during an official proceeding before the Attorney General’s Office,” Rojas states.
‘They are unfounded attacks’
In his response to Rojas, criminal lawyer León begins by assuring that they have acted in accordance with the Constitution and established legal processes.
“This defense has acted in strict compliance with the Political Constitution and the laws governing criminal and disciplinary processes. In legitimate exercise of the right to contradiction,” he said.
He added: “Multiple investigative acts have been carried out endorsed by the judges of the Republic in hearings for selective searches in databases and requests for lifting legal confidentiality. These actions -as lawyer Diego Henao Vargas, attorney for Mr. Rojas Cuéllar, should well know- are the legal mechanism to obtain information and documents subject to confidentiality, and to validly incorporate them into the process with full guarantees for the exercise of the right to defense”.
He also assures that neither the Prosecutor’s Office nor the Attorney General’s Office made observations regarding the procedures they carried out in the investigative process: “The procedural actions through which the documentation was obtained involved the participation of the Prosecutor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office, who verified the legality of all the procedures and the information collected”.
The right to defense
León also asserts that the statements of witness Luis Enrique Rojas are “false and contradictory” among themselves: “(They are) based on speculations and a desire for protagonism that seeks to disguise his real ignorance about the facts. This defense will continue to prove such inaccuracies in the corresponding judicial settings“.
(Consult here all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit)
He also explained that they reject any attempt to illegitimately restrict Ricardo Roa’s right to defense and that as a lawyer he has never exercised any intimidation against witnesses or persons involved in judicial processes.
“The statements made by Mr. Rojas constitute unfounded attacks that seek to sabotage the defensive exercise, intimidate the professionals carrying out the management, and create a scenario of undue pressure against the officials conducting the investigations,” reads the statement known by EL TIEMPO.
The indictment writings in none of the processes are yet known.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
Follow us now on Facebook
Read more Registraduría formally requested the funds for the presidential runoff to the Ministry of Finance
