The judge in New York who handles the case of the ex-secretary of Public Security of Mexico Genaro García Luna postponed this Monday the pronouncement of the sentence until the March 1, 2024five months later than the scheduled date (September 27), according to a court document.
Judge Brian Cogan reported that García Luna’s defense attorney has presented “reasonable cause” for the delay of the sentence, and establishes the following deadlines: December 12 for the defense attorney to present new evidence; January 19 for the Prosecutor’s Office to reply; February 2 for the final argument of the defense and March 1 for the reading of the sentence.
Defense lawyer César de Castro had already requested three additional months in April -which he was then granted- to review “new favorable evidence” provided by “law enforcement agents” from Mexico and the United States, among other people, and on July 1 he again requested the extension considering that it was “relevant evidence”.
De Castro has hinted that his strategy will go through asking for a repetition of the process.
The judge’s decision to grant De Castro a new term contradicts the position of the Prosecutor’s Office, which two weeks ago said that the defense had embarked on “a fishing expedition” for favorable evidence and asked Cogan to refuse these delaying maneuvers when they have already had more than three years to speak with witnesses and examine documents.
De Castro had argued before the togado that “as more people learn about the nature of the evidence against Mr. García Luna, even more former officials” are providing “information that they believe could have been useful for the defense at trial.”
Specifically, in the last month of June, the lawyers of the former Secretary of Public Security received “thousands of pages of material, audio and video files” that they had “never seen”, and De Castro argued that most of them are in Spanish, so the team’s language limitations were “delaying” their review.
We understand this cannot be an open-ended process, however the materials we have received are directly relevant to the case and many are law enforcement materials.”
De Castro said in support of his request.
García Luna, 55, was found guilty in February of participating in the management of a criminal enterprise whose activity continues to this day; conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine; conspiracy to distribute and possess 5 kilograms or more of cocaine with the intent to distribute it in the United States and conspiracy to import the same amount or more.
The fifth offense was that of giving false testimony to the US authorities when he applied for citizenship.
For any of the first four charges, you could be sentenced to life in prison.
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