The Prosecutor’s Office of Crime of Femicide will submit, in the next few days, a request for the process against the alleged perpetrators for the death of Melisa Palacios is known in a court of greater risk in the capital. In this second attempt for the change of court, the Prosecutor’s Office will insist that María Fernanda Bonilla Archila and her bodyguard, José Luis Marroquín Ovalle, are responsible for the murder of the young university student.
A court resolved, in 2021, the change of crime in favor of the alleged perpetrators: Bonilla modified the crime of murder for homicide in a state of violent emotion and Moroccan, for own cover -up. Since then, there is a pulse between the defense of the syndicates, judges, and the MP with the victim’s institute, to take the case to a court of greater risk.
According to Edgar Gómez, prosecutor against the crime of femicide of the MP, in the next few days they will present to the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice a request so that the case of Melisa Palacios is transferred to a court of greater risk.
Gómez said that this time they will argue before the criminal chamber that Bonilla and Moroccan are responsible for the crime of murder, so the case must be known in a high impact judiciary. The Prosecutor’s Office will seek that the defendants go to trial for murder.
“Even this at an intermediate stage can be modified the crime of homicide committed in a state of emotion for the crime of murder, which is as initially the Prosecutor’s Office raised her thesis,” Gomez explained.
Why does the MP seek that the case is no longer known in the court of Chiquimula?
The case of Melisa Palacios began in the Court of Zacapa and, according to the MP, due to the change of crime to Bonilla, to homicide committed in a state of violent emotion, and José Luis Marroquín Ovalle, due to his own cover -up, the situation in that judiciary became “tense”.
The manifestations and acts of violence began outside the court; The victim’s relatives were attacked, and those circumstances could generate that the case be transferred to Chiquimula, where the situation would be similar, the prosecutor explained.
Gómez commented that in that court there are five titular judges, and three have been challenged for their alleged lack of impartiality in the case. “We consider that they extracted in their functions, including personal appreciations. What is more delicate, is that it orders to investigate a prosecutor who excused himself in a hearing, when this process has been suspended several times, even for the absence of defense lawyers,” Gomez said.
The prosecutor did not appear because he was sent to an audience in Izabal, for the murder of Sharon Figueroa, an eight -year -old girl.
Currently, the process is arrested in the court of Chiquimula, after the MP presented a challenge against the entire judiciary. The case can no longer continue in that instance, according to Gomez, because that court developed the hearing of acceptance of charges of Bonilla, for guilty homicide, from which he retracted later.
An application to separate the Chiquimula Court, filed by the victim’s institute, is in process before an appeals room.
Why has the case of Melisa Palacios not been known by a court of greater risk?
Gómez said that, at the end of 2021, the National Civil Police carried out a security analysis, and no characteristics were noticed that made the transfer of the case recommended to a court of greater risk.
“The analysis was done by the Police, based on the statements of the complainants, and indicated that there were no risk or risk. That was in September 2021,” Gomez said.
That situation changed after the judge benefited Bonilla and Marroquín with the change of crime, and the aggressions began from the court, the prosecutor explained.
Chiquimula journalists documented how armed people were in the judiciary when the hearings were held, and the victim’s family denounced a possible meeting between the judges who knew the case and people close to the syndicates.
Given these facts, the Prosecutor’s Office presented a request to the Criminal Chamber in 2024, requesting the authorization for the case to be transferred to a higher risk court, but the magistrates resolved that it was not appropriate.
Gómez said that, then, the Chamber argued that the crimes that were being investigated do not concur with those who know a court of greatest risk.
“Recall that the law contains a catalog of crimes that are the competence of courts and courts of greater risk; for example, murder, kidnapping, feminicide and money laundering, among others,” he said.
The MP expects the criminal chamber to transfer the highest risk case
Gomez said that this is not the first time that civilian people arrive armed and intimidated outside the courts. Due to the circumstances, he hopes that the magistrates of the camera will transfer the case.
“We already have several background. This is not the first time, and the new request is already working with the endorsement of the Attorney General, María Consuelo Porras, because we remember that it is she who makes the request to the criminal chamber,” said Gomez.
Armed groups in audiences
For Zoel Franco, an analyst on security and justice issues, armed persons who accompany Bonilla and Moroccan outside the courts, is an intimidating measure against those involved in the process.
“Arriving with a group of people and some with weapons, showing them in an ostentatious way, is obviously a message for any of the parties or justice officials, including MP prosecutors,” said the analyst.
The highest risk courts were created to avoid this type of circumstances and to ensure that justice is applied impartially, Franco added.
Intimidations for Judges and Family of Melisa Palacios
Paula Barrios, general coordinator of the Women’s Association transforming the world (MTM), said that the case of Melisa Palacios exemplifies the challenges and challenges facing the justice system to be objective, impartial, and to guarantee a prompt and fulfilled justice.
“We see the intimidating attitudes and behaviors of the two syndicates. We see what the people, family or workers of this young woman appear around the court with those intimidating attitudes, carrying firearms or with scarves on the face,” he said.
Barrios emphasized that these types of actions could pretend to intimidate and coerce the judge, the procedural subjects and the victim’s family.
In addition, Barrios expressed concern about the change of crime against Bonilla and his bodyguard, Marroquín. “She, above all, boasts of that change of qualification that, by the way, has never denied; she accepts the facts,” he said.
He commented that the indications presented by the MP, and that they have been published by the media, refer that there was a planning and coordination to commit a murder.
“It would call on the media to handle these cases with a lot of objectivity. Because giving it – Bonilla – the microphone and interviewing it, in some way, it has a negative impact on society and is normalizing those acts,” he argued.