judicial

Poison case still open

The case concerning the 2006 mass poisoning with diethylene glycol-tainted medicines has not been closed, said public prosecutor for the Ministerio Público Maruquel Castroverde yesterday, in response to concerns by several of the victims’ family members.

As proof, Castroverde welcomed those with questions about the case to visit her office.

The prosecutor did confirm, however, that case file is currently being held in the Criminal Division of the Corte Suprema, where it has been since July while justices resolved a statute dispute made by director of the Caja de Seguro Social (CSS) René Luciani based on the argument that the time for filing lawsuits had run out.

Because of that contention, Castroverde, all new related cases must be submitted to the Oficina de Recepción de Denuncias.

Yesterday, the activist group Comité por la Defensa a la Salud y a la Vida filed an appeal before the Criminal Division of the Corte Suprema, requesting the provisional dismissal of the former director of the Farmacias y Drogas del Ministerio de Salud, Pablo Solis, and that the court decline a change in jurisdiction for the circuit court cases of the remaining 15 defendants in the case, including former directors of the CSS, Juan Jované and Rolando Villalaz.

Comité member Gabriel Pascual clarified that victims’ families argument centers around the belief that there are many more officials involved in the case that have not been charged, making its review by the Corte Suprema premature.