Valentina Trespalacios Case: Will the translation affect the prosecution of John Poulos?

To the rejections for the case of the femicide of the DJ Valentina Trespalaciosa series of questions have been added about how the prosecution of the alleged perpetrator, the American, is being carried out john poulos. Because the defendant’s native language is English, a translator has had to be added to the preliminary hearings, who word by word has interpreted what each of the parties say.

Apparently, several judicial terms would not have been translated according to the meaning and some words, presumably, the translator did not know. On this situation, the criminal lawyer Julián Quintana, in conversation with Snail Newsconsidered that there is a problem by not being able to correctly communicate to the defendant the rights he has, but also the crimes he is facing.

Read: John Poulos did not accept charges for the femicide of DJ Valentina Trespalacios

“Not only in the preliminary hearings to legalize the capture, imputation of charges and insurance, but also even from the very reading of the rights of the captured, the rights could be harmed if they do not understand what is being stated in the present” Quintana indicated to that media outlet.

On the other hand, the criminal Ricardo Burgos, also in an interview with Snail Newspointed out that “the Supreme Court of Justice has established that translations to a person must be comprehensive and that this clearly violates constitutional rights and nullifies everything from the moment they happened.”

It may interest you: They release videos of the apartment where Valentina Trespalacios was supposedly killed

Burgos, regarding what has been happening with Poulos, indicated that “they stopped to give the gentleman a summary of what was happening at the hearing. This is not the case, this violates not only guarantees, but fundamental rights, human rights, so how much will it affect further in the sentence or in a trial?

Will there be nullity in the process of John Poulos?

Lawyer Julian QuintanaFaced with this, he indicated that the translation has to be excellent, so otherwise it could be “configuring a possible invalidity, precisely because of that imperative imposed on us by Law 906, which tells us that the person must understand clearly and precisely the charges for which they are imputing him or are going to impose a security measure on him.”

In context: DJ Valentina Trespalacios: Who is John Poulos, the noted femicide?

This case, some criminal lawyers have said, has shown that the Colombian judiciary would not be fully educated in language matters, and there are “almost no translators who have the quality, legal English, to carry out these activities.”

For now, the process has progressed with apparent normality, and although the language barrier would be evident, it seems that Poulos has been clear about the situation he is facing. In the most recent hearing to charge charges, aggravated femicide and concealment of probative material, the suspect did not accept the crimes.

Miguel Angel del Riowho is the representative of DJ Valentina’s family, has requested that a change of translator be considered for the hearing that will take place next Tuesday, January 31, the date on which the Prosecutor’s Office will request the security measure for the presumed responsible.

For more news from the capital and Cundinamarca, visit the Bogotá section of The viewer.