Yoneiba Parra Barillas, former Venezuela prosecutor who ordered the incarceration of Eligio Cedeño was formally requested on arriving in Miami last month to give testimony before a federal court in south Florida. According to Casto Ocando of El Nuevo Herald:
The notification invoked a little known law that allows a federal court to summon potential witnesses in cases that are aired in foreign courts.
In accordance with an order issued by the federal court, Yoneiba Parra Barillas was required to testify under oath about her involvement in the case of Eligio Cedeño, who remains in jail in Caracas on charges of alleged tax evasion, smuggling and diversion of finances. As a prosecutor, Parra ordered his imprisonment in 2007.
Cedeño has pleaded innocent to all charges and has said repeatedly that he is being politically persecuted by President Chávez.
According to documents and sources who spoke to El Nuevo Herald, Parra was approached by a federal marshal on her arrival from a Caracas flight on Sunday 20 September, with the order of delivering the subpoena.
A letter introduced in federal court on 14 September by Cedeño lawyers in Miami justified the importance of Parra's testimony, arguing that her testimony could prove irregularities in the trial against him in Venezuela.
"Cedeño has reason to believe, and believes, that Mrs. [Parra] Barillas was fired from the Attorney General's office because she disagreed with the way it was conducting the criminal prosecution of Mr. Cedeño, and that her testimony will reveal once and for all the irregularities in the pre-trial indictment and imprisonment of Mr. Cedeño,'' said the letter.
Leave a comment