The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office on Monday asked a court specializing in “terrorism” crimes to issue an “arrest warrant” against opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia for his “alleged commission of crimes of usurpation of functions” and “forgery of public documents” in relation to the electoral records of the presidential elections of July 28.
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This action comes after the flag bearer of the majority Venezuelan opposition ignored three summons sent by the prosecuting body in the framework of 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.”
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 he did not appear again, González would be “issued an arrest warrant” considering that he “is in danger of fleeing”.
(News in development. More to come soon).
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