Miguel Ramirez and Manuel Serrano, former officials of the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (Conavi) – national roads council – who were arrested last December, are free men this morning.
The two, until last night, were in “preventive detention” on alleged crimes of embezzement in the construction of the border trail road known as “la Trocha”.
According to their lawyer, Jose Miguel Villalobos, the Juzgado Penal de Guadalupe (Guadalupe Criminal Court) denied the prosecutor’s request for an additional five months of preventive detention.
The two men, however, have been ordered to surrender their passports, sign in at the courthouse every week and have a fixed address, according to Villalobos.
The Fiscalía (prosecution) appealed the decision and is now up to an appeals judge who decides if the two men maintain their freedom before going to trial or are back behind bars. The decision is expected in a few days.
