The trial will be repeated after a Criminal Chamber gave the reason to the defense of the youtuber, after in the first trial they declared null and void the lawsuit against Beltrán Bonilla.
The Fifth Sentencing Court of San Salvador scheduled for the second time the trial against a journalist and former deputy,Raul Beltrán Bonilla,sued for slander and defamation to the detriment ofJosé Orbilio Valladares Ortíz, better known as “José YouTuber”.
According to the notification to which Diario El Mundo had access, the date for repeating trial was scheduled foron 5 September 2024at 9:00 in the morning, at the facilities of the Isidro Menéndez Judicial Center in San Salvador. It will be the same court that will hear the case, but with a different judge.
“It was due to the public hearing to hear the sentencing court in a one-person manner in the present criminal proceedings, a procedure that will be carried out by the graduate Jesús Ulises García,” says the court’s notification.
The Court justified thatthe public hearing is out of time due to the holiday period of public employees that will be from 1 to 6 August.
By the day of the trial, both the defense of former MP Beltrán Bonilla and the defense of “José YouTuber” must pity their witnesses.
The order of the Second Criminal Chamber was that the case should return to the state in which the lawsuit was previously declared null and void.
The prosecution was declared “absolute null”On September 5, by the Fifth Sentence Court of San Salvador, which gave the reason to Beltrán Bonilla’s defense, who argued that the proceedings in the case were not exhausted, being a request for rectification and response to YSKL radio, where the slander and defamation were allegedly carried out.It was the second time the indictment had been overturned.
The judge who heard the case explained that in the trial it was established, both for the documentary and testimonial evidence of the president of the YSKL, Manuel Antonio Flores Pineda, who said that during Beltrán Bonilla he was a deputy of the National Concertation Party (PCN), he also practiced the profession of journalist. José Valladares’ lawyers had claimed that Bonilla used resources and violated the Constitution by making him double employment.
How was the demand born?
The process originated because in the early 2021, Beltrán Bonilla through a video on social networks stated that Valladares had a ghost seat with a political party in the Legislative Assembly. Likewise, he would have offended the youtuber for his sexual preference.
The defense, as well as the videos, show how Beltrán Bonilla claimed that Valladares had a ghost seat in the Assembly for which he was paid $900.
At the trial, Beltran Bonilla’s defense claimed at the trial that what was said was in self-defense to the insults that the youtuber carried out on him in at least 22 videos.
Through his statement, “José Youtuber” stated that he considers himself the voice of the people – and that it is political satire that enables him to put nicknames.
Valladares in his lawsuit asks for $20,000 in civil liability, $10,000 for slander and the same amount for defamation.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo