Costa Rica’s Supreme Court has ordered a review of the rules judges use when deciding whether suspects should remain in jail, be released under restrictions or face other temporary measures while a criminal case moves forward. The decision comes after recent investigations into alleged corruption within the Judicial Branch, including the arrests of two judges and an OIJ employee suspected of helping people connected to the criminal organization associated with Alejandro Arias Monge, known as “Diablo.”
The full Supreme Court, known here as Corte Plena, gave three of its chambers 15 days to examine the current rules and recommend possible changes. The review will focus particularly on cases involving organized crime and corruption. The issue gained attention after two judges and an OIJ employee arrested last week were allowed to remain out of jail while their cases are investigated.
Instead of preventive detention, they received restrictions that included suspension from their jobs, reporting to authorities every 15 days, maintaining a fixed address, not leaving Costa Rica and avoiding contact with certain Judicial Branch employees. The decisions raised questions among some Supreme Court magistrates about whether Costa Rica’s current laws give judges the right tools to deal with increasingly serious organized crime and corruption cases.
Luis Porfirio Sánchez, president of the Supreme Court’s labor chamber, pointed to the difference between those cases and another recent investigation in which a Fuerza Pública officer accused of helping the Diablo organization was ordered held in preventive detention for one year.
Sánchez said the difference in how the suspects were treated was something the Court needed to examine. However, the Supreme Court is not proposing automatic jail time for people accused of organized crime or corruption. Magistrates stressed that judges must remain independent and continue deciding each case individually. The review is intended to determine whether the laws themselves need to be updated to better reflect the seriousness and public impact of organized crime and corruption cases.
The review goes beyond criminal cases. The Court will also examine labor and administrative rules that can allow judicial employees who have been fired or suspended to return to work while they challenge those decisions. That issue has become particularly controversial after cases involving judges previously dismissed by the Supreme Court.
One involves a Garabito judge who was fired after dismissing a criminal case against two Colombians connected to a shipment of more than 800 kilograms (1,764 pounds) of cocaine. His dismissal was put on hold while he challenged the decision through the courts. The same judge was arrested last week in a separate investigation and is now suspected of prevaricato, essentially knowingly making an unlawful judicial decision, and improperly disclosing confidential information. Those allegations have not been proven in court.
Supreme Court magistrates expressed concern that officials removed for serious misconduct can sometimes return to their positions while lengthy legal challenges continue. The Court also agreed yesterday that corruption cases involving Judicial Branch employees should receive priority when legally possible, particularly when an employee remains suspended while continuing to receive a salary.
Any recommendations from the three Supreme Court chambers will first be considered by Corte Plena. Changes requiring amendments to Costa Rican law would ultimately have to go before the Legislative Assembly. The review represents one of the first concrete institutional responses to recent allegations that organized crime has been able to gain assistance from people working inside Costa Rica’s police and judicial systems.
