A/HRC/45/CRP.11 charge Mr. Marrero with treason and usurpation of functions. 1347 She ordered that Mr. Marrero remain in pre-trial detention, although his lawyers were not notified of this until 14 June 2019. 685. On 12 May 2019, the Thirty-Ninth Provisional Prosecutor of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas, Ana Karina García Carmona, and Seventy-Third Auxiliary Prosecutor Jean Karin López presented formal charges against Roberto Marrero. Mr. Marrero’s lawyers opposed the request on 6 June 2019. On 18 June 2019, the Court of Control of Caracas decided to send Mr. Marrero to trial and ordered him to remain in pre-trial detention. On 25 November 2019, the trial against Roberto Marrero began, at which point Mr. Marrero had spent five months in pre-trial detention. 686. On 12 December 2019, the SEBIN inspector who drafted the police report on 15 March 2019 appeared to testify before the Second Court of Control on Terrorism-Related Crimes. He indicated that while investigating, he came to know that Mr. Marrero was in the border area between Táchira and Cúcuta acquiring weapons to smuggle them from Colombia to Venezuela. 687. Responding questioning from the defence, the inspector declared that he had never been to Colombia and that he did not directly carry out the investigation. He said he simply transcribed into the criminal record what his immediate supervisor, General Jesús Alberto García Hernández, dictated to him.1348 688. On 20 December 2019, the judge assigned to the case, Judge Yixis Gutiérrez, was dismissed. According to Mr. Marrero’s lawyers, the judge was removed because she was acting independently.1349 She a provisionally appointed judge and her dismissal did not follow constitutional procedures for the removal of judges.1350 689. On 31 August 2020, Mr. Marrero was pardoned by President Maduro, together with 109 others, and was released from detention. Mr. Marrero’s immediate family left Venezuela.1351 His brothers remain in the country and reported being followed by plainclothed security officers every time they travelled to Caracas to visit their brother in El Helicoide.1352 Findings 690. Based on the facts above, the Mission has reasonable grounds to believe that Roberto Marrero was victim of arbitrary detention. SEBIN Counter-Intelligence Direction was involved. DGCIM Director, Iván Hernández Dala, may have been involved in the procurement of the weapons that were placed in Mr. Marrero’s apartment. 1347 1348 1349 1350 1351 1352 Foreseen and sanctioned in articles 128 and 213 of the Criminal Code. Written declaration submitted by Joel Garcia, Mr. Marrero’s lawyer, to the Mission, 12 May 2020. Mr. Garcia Hernandez was found dead in a hotel on 16 May 2019. The authorities have catalogued his dead as a suicide though several doubts have been put forward, including by former SEBIN Director Christopher Figuera, with whom GC Garcia Hernandez worked very closely. See, for instance, El Universal, Cristopher Figuera: Asesinato del mayor Jesús Alberto García Hernández “fue por encargo", available at: https://www.eluniversal.com/politica/40300/ex-director-del-sebin-elasesinato-del-mayor-jesus-alberto-garcia-hernandez-fue-por-encargo. See also América Digital Noticias El exjefe del Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia (SEBIN), conversó con César Miguel Rondón sobre el poder de Maduro y su círculo, la tortura en el SEBIN y su papel (y el de otros funcionarios aún en el gobierno) en la Operación Libertad, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjtuUlQpNoI&feature=youtu.be, minute 3:25. Ibid. See also, YouTube Video, Voluntad Popular, Régimen destituyó a la jueza del caso de Roberto Marrero e interrumpe juicio indefinidamente, 8 January 2020, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzH7VcmXsFs 1999 Constitution, art. 255, which provides that judges can only be removed or suspended through the procedures expressly provided by the law. Interview with Romy Moreno on 8 May 2020. Ibid. 149