Former candidate Edmundo Gonzalez will not attend the third summons from the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office, what awaits him?

Former opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia was summoned Thursday for the third time by the Venezuelan public ministry to respond to the publication of the minutes of the July 28 presidential election on a website, which the Venezuelan authorities consider a “usurpation of functions.”

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said after learning of this that González Urrutia would not respond to the prosecutor’s summons, arguing that there was a “totalitarian regime” in the country and that “he had already been tried.”

Machado also asked the international community to be on alert because he believes González Urrutia’s home, which is protected like her, could be raided in the next few hours.

“It is clear that he will not leave and we must all protect the president-elect,” he said in an interview with Spanish media, explaining that his relatives and those around him are under pressure.

“Who is breaking the rules? (…) If the CNE was good and it was great for Edmundo González to sign up for several tickets, why now that the CNE has given a result, he prefers, apart from disrespect, to challenge the CNE and offend that authority (…) “Why is the CNE no longer useful?” Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab wondered on Wednesday.

He added that according to judicial precedent, a person can be summoned up to three times, and confirmed that González Urrutia is being summoned “as an investigator.”

The new ballot warns that if González Urrutia does not appear before the tax office on Friday, August 30, at 10:00 a.m. local time, there will be considered a “risk of flight” and a “risk of obstruction,” and therefore an arrest warrant will be issued.

González Urrutia, 75, has been restricted to videos on social media since July 30. The diplomat was summoned twice by the Public Ministry, but did not show up. On the pretext that she has no guarantees And that the Attorney General “has repeatedly acted as a political defendant” and that he “convicts in advance.”

“This is my grandfather”

The National Electoral Council, which has yet to publish detailed results a month after the presidential election, Nicolas Maduro gave the winner For a third term, but the opposition, which published the minutes kept by its table witnesses, confirms that the victory went to González Urrutia with 67% of the votes.

Lawyers he consulted Voice of America It points out that the summons as “investigated” does not appear in the Code of Criminal Procedure (COPP) and highlights that neither summons “for interview” in relation to events investigated by the Public Prosecution Service is defined by the capacity in which the summons was made: witness or accused.

“This is dangerous,” they agree.

The deputy, whose independence has been questioned by international organizations, is investigating allegations of “usurpation of functions, forgery of a public document, incitement to disobey laws, computer crimes, complicity in committing a crime and conspiracy.”

Article 126-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure states that in order to carry out the assignment process, the deputy must summon the citizen in writing, indicating “the condition under which he must appear.”

So what will González Urrutia face if he does not attend the third summons? Given the circumstances, lawyers believe he will be taken by the “public force.”

Saab announced that the MP would then “announce the corresponding action that might be taken based on the law.”

Criminal lawyer Joel Garcia believes that if González Urrutia does not appear for a third summons, a “command of command” will be requested before the surveillance court, but he warns that in the country “anything can happen inside or outside the law.”

Article 292 of the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure (COPP) states that the Court of Control may, at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, “order the taking of any citizen by the public force directly before the Parliamentary official who requested the command” to conduct interviews about the events under investigation.

“You will be immediately transferred to the Public Prosecution Office to comply with the purpose of your request, within a period not exceeding eight hours calculated from the time of its taking by the public force,” the article continues.

The law states that anyone named as a defendant has the right to be assisted by a lawyer of their choice.

However, in recent years, human rights activists have denounced violations of due process, and most recently, they warned that many of those arrested in the context of the post-election demonstrations were prevented from being sworn in as private lawyers.

What else does the legal framework say?

Article 212 of the Criminal Procedure Code states that if “the witness does not appear at the first summons, he will be brought in by law enforcement authorities. If after appearing he refuses to testify without having the right to do so, this fact will be reported to the Public Prosecutor’s Office so that an investigation can be conducted.

Article 238 of the Penal Code states that anyone summoned by the judicial authority as a “witness (…) who refuses to appear without justification shall be punished by imprisonment from fifteen days to three months.” “Anyone who appears and refuses without legal reason to give his testimony or perform the function that led to his summons shall be punished by the same penalty.”

He added: “In addition to imprisonment, the offender will be deprived of practicing his profession or art for a period equal to the term of imprisonment after its completion.”

President Nicolas Maduro stressed that if a citizen is summoned and does not show up for the third time, the option is to put “hooks” on him (arrest him).

“They don’t want to go to the prosecutor’s office because they will be left naked and hanging from the hooks. The third option (…) I come, I present the forged documents, and the judge says, comrade, you are committing the crime of forging documents, and you are left with the hooks placed here,” he said, revealing a hypothetical situation at a mass rally.

Maduro said 83% of the documents published by the opposition were “forged” and questioned whether González Urrutia had not responded to the prosecutor’s summons.

Venezuela is going through one of the most complex moments in its modern history, amid allegations of electoral fraud, escalating repression against the opposition, and increasingly dim hopes for a quick solution to the crisis.

Dozens of countries have expressed their rejection of the Supreme Court ruling that validated the results and demanded an independent and reliable verification, but the government responded by questioning “interference” in internal affairs.

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