Edmundo González Urrutia: the Prosecutor’s Office requests arrest
The Public Prosecutor’s Office asked The court of first instance with terrorism functions issued an arrest warrant against Edmundo González Urrutia. According to the request, the measure is given for alleged usurpation of functions, forgery of public documents and instigation to disobedience of the law.
This action comes after the flag bearer of the majority Venezuelan opposition ignored three summons sent by the prosecuting body regarding an investigation against him, the last one last Friday.
The 75-year-old diplomat did not appear at the three appointments set by the Prosecutor’s Office, which were published on social media by Attorney General Tarek William Saab, who accuses the opposition of “conspiracy” and “usurpation of functions,” reviewed The Weather from Colombia.
The investigation into González Urrutia is related to the publication of a website on which the main opposition coalition – the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) – claims to have uploaded 83.5% of the electoral records” collected by witnesses and polling station members on election night, to support its claim of fraud in the presidential elections.
The PUD released these records, which the Executive calls “false,” after the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Nicolás Maduro the winner of the elections, which has been questioned by numerous countries, some of which support that González Urrutia won by a wide margin.
The Prosecutor’s Office therefore summoned the PUD standard-bearer – initially for Monday and, when he did not attend, summoned him for Tuesday and then for last Friday – for “the alleged commission of the crimes of usurpation of functions, forgery of public documents, instigation to disobedience of the law, computer crimes, criminal association and conspiracy.”
On Thursday, when the third summons was made public, The Prosecutor’s Office had warned that if González did not appear again, “a corresponding arrest warrant would be issued” considering that he “is in the presence of a risk of flight”.