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	Weaponizing the justice system to undermine democracy by United Nations News, HRW, agencies Guatemala   Dec. 2024   Guatemala’s attorney general is carrying out politically motivated prosecutions against members of President Bernardo Arévalo’s administration, Human Rights Watch said today.   Since President Arevalo took office in January 2024, the Attorney General’s Office has moved forward with criminal investigations against the Arévalo administration that appear to be based on dubious evidence.   In November, a judge ordered the cancelation of the president’s political party’s legal registration, as part of a case brought by the Attorney General’s Office. These decisions follow Attorney General Consuelo Porras’ efforts to prevent President Arevalo from taking office through a range of legal actions that the US government, the European Union, and members of the Organization of American States (OAS) criticized as efforts to undermine democracy.   “Attorney General Porras, who led an effort to unlawfully overturn the elections, is abusing the powers of her office to prosecute government officials through dubious evidence and legal maneuvers,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.   “Instead of investigating the organized crime and widespread corruption in Guatemala, the attorney general appears to be bringing these selective prosecutions to undermine a government she opposes.”   Between August and November, Human Rights Watch interviewed 11 people, including senior government officials, former prosecutors, lawmakers, and others. These included Ligia Hernandez, a former government official and lawmaker, whom Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed while she was in pretrial detention at Matamoros prison. Researchers reviewed court documents and public statements by officials from the Attorney General’s Office. Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the attorney general on December 2 requesting information on her office’s investigations into corruption; she has not responded.   The Attorney General’s Office has initiated at least 17 investigations against high-level government officials, and at least six times asked the Supreme Court to strip President Arevalo of his immunity, so that he can be criminally investigated.   Human Rights Watch found that the attorney general repeatedly accused government officials of committing offenses, such as “abuse of power” on the basis of alleged conduct that does not appear to be criminal.   In many cases, following seemingly exaggerated accusations against the government in high-profile news conferences, prosecutors then declared cases “classified.” This has hampered the ability of the public at large—and often the defendants and their lawyers—to understand the nature of the investigations.   President Arevalo took office despite a campaign by Attorney General Porras and some members of the judiciary to undermine the integrity of the electoral process and prevent his inauguration. During the electoral process, prosecutors raided the Supreme Electoral Tribunal—Guatemala’s electoral authority—multiple times, seized over 125,000 original electoral documents, and suspended the legal registration of the president’s party, Movimiento Semilla.   Porras has undermined investigations into corruption and human rights abuses, including by transferring or firing the prosecutors in charge, Human Rights Watch said.   Her office also brought arbitrary prosecutions against independent judges, prosecutors, and journalists. They include an anti-corruption prosecutor, Stuardo Campos, who remains behind bars; Jose Ruben Zamora, the founder and editor of the news outlet elPeriodico, who is under house arrest; and Virgina Laparra, a top anti-corruption prosecutor, who fled the country after almost two years in jail.   The EU and the United States have sanctioned Porras and some of her key allies, including her assistant Angel Pineda; a special prosecutor, Rafael Curruchiche; and Judge Fredy Orellana, who ordered the cancelation of Movimiento Semilla’s legal registration.   In one case documented by Human Rights Watch, Curruchiche asked the Supreme Court on August 21 to strip President Arevalo of his presidential immunity, so that he could be criminally investigated. Curruchiche accused the president of “abuse of authority,” “usurpation of functions,” and “constitutional violations.”   In a news conference, Curruchiche said that the accusations are based on an audio recording in which Arevalo fires a minister who the president says paid a public contractor through an unauthorized procedure. Curruchiche did not explain how Arevalo’s decision to fire the minister would constitute a crime but accused the president of being “the main sponsor of corruption and impunity in Guatemala.”   Following the news conference, prosecutors declared the case “classified.” Government lawyers say they have not had access to the file.   Also in August, the Attorney General’s Office asked the Supreme Court to lift the immunity of Santiago Palomo, the president’s communications secretary and former anti-corruption adviser, and of Blanca Alfaro, a member of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.   The prosecutor accused Alfaro and Palomo of “obstructing criminal investigations,” among other crimes, because Alfaro disclosed details about the electoral material seized during a raid and Palomo revealed details of the investigation via official government communications channels.   On August 13, the police detained Ligia Hernandez, the director of the Victim’s Institute (Insituto de la Víctima), a government body in charge of supporting victims of crime. Prosecutors charged her with “unregistered electoral financing” and “electoral fund supervision violations,” claiming she concealed funding for Movimiento Semilla.   These are offenses that, according to several Guatemalan legal experts, are normally addressed through administrative—not criminal—procedures. Judge Orellana held Hernandez in pretrial detention for three months, until Hernandez accepted a plea deal.   In November, Judge Orellana cited Hernández’s plea deal to order the cancellation of Movimiento Semilla’s legal registration. The EU and the United States had previously sanctioned Orellana for undermining democratic processes.   Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Office has failed to move forward with other corruption investigations. For example, it closed investigations into whether former President Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024) received bribes from a Russian company operating in Guatemala and from a former government official accused of corruption. It also dismissed investigations into alleged corruption within the Ministry of Health and fraud in healthcare procurement.   In August, Guatemala’s tax agency presented a criminal complaint accusing 410 companies of evading taxes, for a total of over US$38 million. Instead of investigating the alleged tax fraud, the Attorney General’s Office in December opened an investigation against the director of the tax agency, who filed the complaint, accusing him of “extortion” and “influence peddling.”   The Arevalo administration has presented 198 criminal complaints based on indications of corruption it found since taking office. According to the government’s Commission against Corruption, prosecutors have closed 37 cases and only six have moved beyond the initial stages of investigation.   The Attorney General’s Office shows alarming impunity rates across serious crimes, with over 94 percent of cases involving violence against women, aggravated robbery, extortion, and homicide going unresolved. Impunity has contributed to violence, reduced public trust in institutions, and undermined the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said.   http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/18/guatemala-attorney-general-pursues-political-prosecutions   Jan. 2024   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on continued persecution of justice officials in Guatemala:   The growing number of criminal cases brought against justice officials over the past 12 months in Guatemala is seriously concerning and undermines the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law in the country.   The intimidation, harassment, prosecution and persecution of those fighting for accountability for human rights violations, including work on corruption cases, is reprehensible and must stop.   I note that Virginia Laparra, a former anti-corruption prosecutor at the Attorney General’s Office, who was released from jail this week remains under house arrest. I am concerned that the criminal proceedings against her lacked due process guarantees and her nearly two-year detention was arbitrary in consequence. She should be released unconditionally.   I reiterate my call on the authorities to take appropriate measures to strengthen and guarantee the independence of the justice system, and to take urgent measures to provide the necessary protection to justice officials.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2024/01/comment-un-high-commissioner-human-rights-volker-turk-continued-persecution   9 Dec. 2023   UN Human Rights Chief deplores persistent attempts to undermine outcome of elections. (OHCHR)   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Saturday raised the alarm about persistent and systematic attempts by the Attorney General’s Office in Guatemala to undercut the general election results, in full disregard of the voters’ will.   “Friday’s announcements, aimed at nullifying the outcome of the general elections and questioning the constitution and existence of the Movimiento Semilla party are extremely disturbing,” the High Commissioner said.   He stressed that judicial harassment and intimidation against electoral officers and elected officials was unacceptable.   “It is encouraging that, despite the long list of judicial and political actions taken by some authorities, which clearly undermine the integrity of the electoral process and breach the rule of law and democracy, people have been standing up for their rights and have been opposing what they perceive as a theft of their political will,” he added.   Turk urged the authorities to preserve and respect all human rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly at all times.   “I once again call on the competent authorities, including the current President, as well as the judiciary, to take action to preserve the rule of law and ensure respect of the electoral outcome, and thus the will of the majority of the Guatemalan people. It is critical to safeguard democracy and respect for human rights,” added Türk.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/12/guatemala-un-human-rights-chief-deplores-persistent-attempts-undermine   18 Jan. 2023   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Wednesday expressed deep concern at repeated intimidation, harassment and reprisals against justice officials and other individuals involved in efforts to combat impunity for human rights violations or working on anti-corruption cases.   “It is dramatic, given Guatemala’s history, that those fighting for accountability for gross human rights violations are the ones now being persecuted,” said Türk.   “Equally concerning are the attacks against those trying to combat one of the worst viruses to afflict any society: corruption.”   Justice officials and other individuals involved in fighting impunity or in anti-corruption processes have been investigated, detained, charged and even convicted for abuse of power, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. In addition, several others have left the country out of fear for their safety.   Between 2021 and 2022, the UN Human Rights Office in Guatemala documented a more than 70 percent increase in the number of justice officials facing intimidation and criminal charges for their work on corruption or human rights violations, particularly those that occurred in the context of the armed conflict that took place between 1960 and 1996.   On 16 January this year, the Chief of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against impunity (FECI – Fiscalía Especial contra la Impunidad) announced warrants of arrests against three justice officials. One was a staff member of CICIG, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, a UN-backed body charged with investigating and prosecuting serious crimes in the country. The Government closed down CICIG in 2019.   Between 2007 and 2019, CICIG assisted the national judicial system in dealing with more than 100 high-profile cases of alleged corruption and other criminal offences involving Government officials, members of Congress and the Courts, and several individuals in the private sector.   Upon the disbanding of CICIG, there has been a steady increase in the number of cases of harassment and criminal charges against its former officials, and prosecutors.   “These judicial processes and the lack of due process guarantees undermine the rule of law in the entire country,” said the UN Human Rights Chief.   “I call on the authorities to take appropriate measures to strengthen and guarantee the independence of the justice system and provide the necessary protection to justice officials.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/03/guatemala-turk-warns-against-reprisals-targeting-justice-officials http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/01/guatemala-un-human-rights-chief-volker-turk-expresses-deep-concern   Jan. 2023   United Nations expresses ‘concern’ over Guatemala investigations. (news agencies)   The United Nations has issued a statement expressing “concern” after Guatemala announced it would investigate a former anti-corruption investigator assigned to the country.   Iván Velásquez, a Colombian who led the UN’s anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala from 2013 to 2019, is under investigation for “illegal, arbitrary and abusive acts”, according to prosecutors in Guatemala.   But critics have warned the probe is the latest effort from Guatemala’s government to backtrack on anti-corruption efforts.   UN Secretary-General António Guterres “expresses his concern at the numerous reports suggesting that criminal prosecution is being exercised against those who sought to shed light on cases of corruption and worked to strengthen the justice system in Guatemala”, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.   The UN also underscored that “justice operators and officials” from its former anti-corruption campaign continue to “enjoy privileges and immunities” even after their positions have come to a close.   The campaign started in 2006 when the UN and Guatemala agreed to launch the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The aim of the commission was to root out “criminal groups believed to have infiltrated state institutions” in the wake of Guatemala’s decades-long civil war.   In 2007, at the time when the commission was ratified, Guatemala was in the grip of a police scandal, with reports of extrajudicial killings, and there were fears corruption could erode the country’s democratic gains.   Velásquez, a Colombian who formerly served as an auxiliary magistrate to his country’s Supreme Court, was appointed to head the CICIG on August 31, 2013.   Under his leadership, the commission pursued investigations into some of Guatemala’s highest authorities, including the administration of then-President Otto Perez Molina.   Both Molina and his vice president ultimately resigned amid accusations they participated in a corruption scheme known as “La Linea”, which allegedly used customs officials to solicit bribes in exchange for evading import duties.   Molina was sentenced last month to 16 years on fraud and conspiracy charges. He has denied any wrongdoing.   The UN commission’s investigations are estimated to have led to the sentencing of more than 400 people, as well as the disruption of at least 60 criminal networks.   But the CICIG’s work came to a sudden halt in 2019, when Guatemala announced it would withdraw from the 2006 agreement with the UN. The government had previously tried to declare Velásquez a “persona non grata” and deny him entry to the country.   The move prompted fears that 12 years’ worth of government reform would be reversed. “The old actors that have manipulated the judicial system are empowered and will look to debilitate the system again,” a constitutional lawyer from Guatemala told Al Jazeera at the time. But proponents of the move said the CICIG had become a tool of political persecution.   In the years since, the Guatemalan government has faced criticism that it has retaliated against former members of the CICIG, as well as other anti-corruption figures. The Associated Press estimates that about 30 judges, magistrates and prosecutors have been forced into exile from Guatemala under its current administration.   One of the most high-profile cases was that of Juan Francisco Sandoval. Formerly the head of the Guatemalan Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity, he was sacked and fled the country in 2021.   And just this past February, another prominent anti-corruption prosecutor in Guatemala, Virginia Laparra, was arrested. Charged with abuse of authority, she was given a four-year sentence in December.   “The targeted prosecution of justice and media actors undermines Guatemalan rule of law, democracy and prosperity,” the US State Department’s spokesperson Ned Price said in response to Laparra’s sentencing.   Guatemala is now investigating Velásquez, the former CICIG head, in connection to a cooperation agreement with the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, a company previously involved in an international bribery scandal.   The case is being led by Guatemalan prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche Cacul, whom the US State Department has previously accused of “disrupting high-profile corruption cases against government officials and raising apparently spurious claims”. He succeeded the exiled Sandoval as leader of the Guatemalan Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity.   The investigation has sparked tensions between Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro, who appointed Velásquez as defence minister.   Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Petro said he would not accept an arrest warrant for the defence minister.   Giammattei, meanwhile, told the Spanish news agency EFE that Velásquez is facing an investigation and not a criminal prosecution at this time.   “It would be nice if someone enlightened Mr Petro on the difference,” Giammattei said. Both presidents have summoned their ambassadors to each other’s country to discuss the diplomatic incident.   Velásquez, meanwhile, took to Twitter on Tuesday to thank Petro for his support. “I am deeply grateful to the president [Gustavo Petro] for his expressions of solidarity and trust,” Velásquez wrote.   Referring to corruption as a monster, Velásquez emphasised that he and Petro shared a common goal: “We know the monster, we have seen it up close and, from different trenches, we have fought it. We know how it transforms and the methods it uses, but it doesn’t scare us.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/03/global-update-high-commissioner-outlines-concerns-over-40-countries Visit the related web page
	EU Court of Justice delivers blow to beneficial ownership transparency by Andres Knobel Tax Justice Network, agencies   Dec. 2022   On November 22, 2022, the European Court of Justice reversed a decade of progress against financial secrecy, to the cheers of sanctioned oligarchs and tax dodgers all around the world.   In a perverse decision that it claims to be founded in human rights, the court declared invalid the public’s ability to access information on companies’ beneficial owners (the people who own or control them).   With leading European tax havens from Ireland to the Netherlands having already returned the cloak of anonymity to their company registers, E.U. policymakers must deliver an urgent response to this ruling.   The court’s decision rests on the view that allowing the true owners of companies to be publicly known constitutes a serious interference with the rights to respect for private life and the protection of personal data enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. You might guess from this wording that the decision was a major human rights victory that would be celebrated by civil society organizations and the public at large. You couldn’t be more wrong.   The only people celebrating this decision — outside of newly anonymous oligarchs, tax abusers and criminals — seem to be lawyers, trustees, and other professionals describing themselves as “international tax planning specialists,” “legal advises of high net worth individuals and ultra high net worth individuals,” or “private wealth and tax” experts.   In other words, the enablers that help both the rich and criminals, including sanctions-evading oligarchs, to evade the law that applies to everyone else.   Like hackers breaking into a system, lawyers seem in the case to have presented a situation involving an anonymous person, invoking a theoretical risk of being kidnapped while traveling, to convince the E.U. Court of Justice to invalidate public access to a large amount of information without any apparent consideration of the related rights.   A theoretical risk for which there is no evidence was able to destroy a major transparency tool that was proven to be effective at tracking assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs and uncovering money laundering schemes.   Beneficial ownership transparency is one of the few causes that brings together a wide range of stakeholders that usually oppose each other: civil society organizations, financial institutions, journalists, tax authorities, international organizations, financial intelligence units, law enforcement, and private companies involved in compliance.   There is such wide support for transparency on the real owners and controllers of companies because it tackles illicit financial flows of all sorts: money laundering, corruption, conflict of interest, tax evasion, fraud, market rigging, the financing of terrorism and so on.   There are no good reasons, it turns out, to allow people to hide their ownership of the legal vehicles they use to conduct their economic activities. Markets do not work as well if there are unseen monopolies or political conflicts of interest, for example, or if some actors can gain an edge from hidden tax abuse. States work less well when they cannot guarantee a level playing field, or prevent the laundering of the proceeds of crime, or raise the revenues they need to provide the inclusive public services that underpin human rights.   The state, as duty bearer for human rights obligations, should act against these abuses which both corrupt the effective functioning of democratic governance, and undermine the raising of revenues to deliver public benefits. By throwing the cloak of anonymity over E.U. companies, the judgment undermines transparency and accountability, and flies in the face of social justice, which is at the core of human rights.   The judgment also violates another principle of human rights — that of not engaging in policy that results in “retrogression in protection of economic, social, cultural and environmental rights.” This is a serious step backwards.   But it appears that the court hasn’t grasped the importance of leaks such as the Panama Papers. Authorities had been able to access information even before the leaks, but it was only after the leaks that the importance of public access became obvious, both to hold authorities to account when they don’t take action, and to have the public assist under-resourced authorities in revealing financial crimes. Online public access is so useful that even competent authorities prefer it over the time-consuming and burdensome official process of requesting information.   The European Court of Justice appears to have fallen for a specious and narrow “human rights” argument that entirely disregards the much broader and weightier human rights damage that this ruling will inflict.   The decision has not strengthened the rights of any marginalized group. It has only emboldened enablers to keep promoting and creating secrecy for more individuals and in more countries outside the E.U.   One naïve ruling threatens to destroy years of work and E.U. leadership. Human rights arguments have been distorted to justify the creation of secrecy for the benefit of a few and at the expense of society at large. A direct response from E.U. policymakers is now urgently required.   * Andres Knobel is the lead researcher on beneficial ownership at the Tax Justice Network.   http://taxjustice.net/2022/12/05/dear-european-court-of-justice-you-were-played/ http://www.occrp.org/en/beneficial-ownership-data-is-critical-in-the-fight-against-corruption/dear-european-court-of-justice-you-were-played http://www.transparency.org/en/press/eu-court-of-justice-delivers-blow-to-beneficial-ownership-transparency http://www.transparency.org/en/news/access-beneficial-ownership-after-cjeu-legitimate-interest-6th-amld http://taxjustice.net/2023/04/06/the-global-tax-rate-is-now-a-tax-haven-rewards-programme-and-switzerland-wants-in-first/   http://www.icij.org/investigations/luxembourg-leaks/key-plaintiff-in-landmark-european-corporate-transparency-case-owned-companies-in-notorious-tax-havens/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/ericsson-list/as-us-style-corporate-leniency-deals-for-bribery-and-corruption-go-global-repeat-offenders-are-on-the-rise/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/u-s-treasury-faces-a-wave-of-criticism-over-faltering-push-to-unmask-anonymous-companies-and-track-dirty-money/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/proposed-rule-would-render-us-company-registry-effectively-useless-bankers-warn/ http://financialtransparency.org/financial-transparency-tax-justice-five-key-trends-2023/   * In 2012, the Tax Justice Network estimated that a significant fraction of global private financial wealth - at least $32 trillion had been invested virtually tax-free through the world’s ever expanding black hole of more than 80 “offshore” secrecy jurisdictions, stating this range to be a conservative estimation. Such practices deprive countries of hundreds of billions in lost tax revenues, each year (monies that could fund public services). During the last 2 years of the covid pandemic, billionaires fortunes are estimated to have increased by over 50%. Bankers, law firms, accounting firms, lobbyists continue to evolve schemes for rich elites and corporations to maintain such realities.   * 2012 TJN report ($32 trillion): http://bit.ly/3ZuZ9dz http://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/what-is-a-tax-haven-offshore-finance-explained/ Visit the related web page
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