Court of Bogotá welcomes appeal of the Attorney General's Office in the case of frauds by recoveries of VAT to the DIAN

e Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Bogotá hosted the arguments presented by the Attorney General's Office in the appeal lodged against the decision of a trial judge, who had decreed the nullity of the formulation of charges hearing in the case of fraudulent claims for refunds of VAT to the DIAN.

On appeal, prosecutors argued that within the new dynamics of adversarial criminal proceedings, the acts of a party, in this case the charge of the prosecution, are not material control and judge if it no mistakes, who will assume it is wrong on the effects of failure. In this sense, the possible nullity of an act of either party, would ignore the accusatory principle, for accusing the prosecution would end at the discretion of the judge.

Similarly, the control entity argued that the preliminary hearing is designed to allow the parties to present evidence seeking to prove his theory of the case in the trial, but not a stage to discuss the annulment of the proceedings preceding sanitation as the stage which provides the criminal proceedings is the arraignment hearing. In this regard it was stated that within the criminal process can not be made for violation nullification guarantees indefinite recurrently without violating the upper end of the process.

The intervention of the Attorney manages the process to continue its normal course in the preparation stage of the trial, which will discuss the evidence requested by the intervenors, without being eligible new challenges to the indictment or the indictment, as already were the bases of judgment and the judgment.