Lawyers appeal sentence against Cuscatancingo teacher and her sister — Abogados apelan sentencia contra maestra de Cuscatancingo y su hermana

Mar 17, 2024

The teacher and her sister were captured after an anonymous phone call and with police trickery. Their defense denies that they are gang members or their collaborators. — La maestra y su hermana fueron capturadas tras una llamada anónima y con engaños de policías. Su defensa desmienten que sean pandilleras o sus colaboradoras.

A teacher and her sister are unjustly imprisoned, according to their lawyers Gloria Andrade and Andres Medrano, who filed an appeal (request for review of the sentence by a higher court than the one that issued it) of the conviction handed down on February 15 against the teacher Reina Vanessa Hurtado Cerna and her sister, Ismelda Marisol Hurtado Cerna, considering that most of the contradictions in the judicial process were not assessed and that there were violations to the due process to which their clients are entitled.

Both sisters have been sentenced to 16 years in prison for allegedly having committed “threats and illegal limitation of freedom of movement” crime against two persons known in the process by their code names: Halcón and Azul.

“The Attorney General’s Office (FGR), with the support of the National Civil Police (PNC), was able to establish that the accused were linked to the “Mara Salvatrucha” and that they had dedicated themselves to instilling terror in the area where they operated,” reads a bulletin published by the Attorney General’s Office on February 15.

However, the lawyers claim that this is false, as well as a publication made by Diario El Salvador, the state newspaper, in which the Hurtado Cerna sisters were labeled as gang members, despite the fact that the Attorney General’s Office itself failed to prove that they were collaborators of these groups because, according to the lawyers, they are not.

EDH: https://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/nacional/abogados-apelan-sentencia-profesora-cuscatancingo-hermana/1129967/2024/

Abogados apelan sentencia contra maestra de Cuscatancingo y su hermana

Una profesora y su hermana guardan prisión de forma injusta, según sus abogados Gloria Andrade y Andrés Medrano, quienes presentaron un recurso de apelación (solicitud de revisión de la sentencia por un tribunal superior al que la dictó) de la sentencia condenatoria dictada el pasado 15 de febrero contra la maestra Reina Vanessa Hurtado Cerna y su hermana, Ismelda Marisol Hurtado Cerna, por considerar que no fueron valorados la mayoría de contradicciones que hay en el proceso judicial y que hubo violaciones al debido proceso al que tienen derecho sus representadas.

Ambas hermanas han sido condenadas a pasar 16 años en prisión por, supuestamente, haber cometido el delito de “amenazas y limitación ilegal a la libertad de circulación”, contra dos personas a quienes en el proceso son conocidas con nombres claves: Halcón y Azul.

“Las investigaciones debidamente fundamentadas por parte de la Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), con apoyo de la Policía Nacional Civil (PNC), lograron establecer que las imputadas están ligadas a la “Mara Salvatrucha” y que se habían dedicado a infundir terror en la zona donde operaban”, reza un boletín publicado por la Fiscalía el 15 de febrero pasado.

Sin embargo, los abogados aseguran que eso es falso, igual que una publicación que hizo Diario El Salvador, el periódico estatal, en el que se etiquetaba como pandilleras a las hermanas Hurtado Cerna, a pesar de que la misma Fiscalía no logró probar que fueran colaboradoras de esos grupos porque, según los letrados, no lo son.

EDH: https://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/nacional/abogados-apelan-sentencia-profesora-cuscatancingo-hermana/1129967/2024/