Venezuela: Arrest Warrant Against Edmundo Gonzalez
The Prosecutor’s Office summoned Gonzalez on three occasions. He is accused of usurpation of functions and other made-to-order crimes.
HAVANA TIMES – The Maduro government’s Prosecutor’s Office requested a court specializing in crimes of “terrorism” to issue an “arrest warrant” against the candidate of the largest opposition coalition, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. They accuse him of the “alleged commission of crimes of usurpation of functions” and “forging public documents” related to the electoral records of the presidential elections held on July 28th.
The request is made after the Prosecutor’s Office summoned Gonzalez on three occasions, and the opposition leader decided not to appear, questioning the nature of the summons and not recognizing the crimes attributed to him by the Public Ministry.
According to an official document from the prosecution dated today, Gonzalez is also accused of “incitement to disobedience of laws,” “conspiracy,” “sabotage of system damages,” and “association (to commit crimes).”
The investigation into Gonzalez is related to the publication of a website by the main opposition coalition – the Democratic Unity Platform (PUD) – which uploaded “83.5% of the precinct tally sheet results” collected by witnesses and polling station workers on the night of the election to support their claim of fraud in the presidential election.
The PUD released these records, which the government labels as “fake,” after the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Nicolas Maduro the winner of the elections without posting the detailed results. A decision that has been questioned by numerous countries, some of which support the claim that Gonzalez won by a wide margin.
Last Thursday, when the third summons was made public, the Prosecutor’s Office warned that if Gonzalez did not attend again, a “respective arrest warrant” would be issued against him, considering that he was “at risk of fleeing.”
On August 25 – the date of the first summons – through a video published on social media, Gonzalez stated that the Public Ministry “intends to subject him to an interview without specifying under what condition he is expected to appear and pre-classifying crimes not committed.”
In his opinion, Attorney General Tarek William Saab “has repeatedly behaved as a political accuser,” as he “condemns in advance and now pushes for a summons without guarantees of independence and due process.”