Two lawyers convicted in child-trafficking case

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A three-judge panel has convicted two lawyers on a charge of international child trafficking.

The case stems from a September 2003 raid on a La Uruca home where nine children, two weeks to 20 months old, were found.

Convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison were Carlos Hernán Robles Macaya and Rodrigo Johanning Quesada.

Another lawyer, Mauricio Brenes Loaiza, and a woman identified as a former secretary, Carolina López, were acquitted due to lack of sufficient evidence, said a report from the Poder Judicial.

The prosecution had sought terms of 29 years each.

The judges also ordered that the two men lose their rights to practice as lawyers for three years.

Robles is the former manager of the defunct Banco Anglo Costarricense, which was shut down in September 1994 with an estimated loss of public funds of more than $100 million. He faces a 25-year prison term in that case.

The nine babies were found because a neighbor complained. All had come from Guatemala, where adoptions are frequently done via private parties.The case was complex, and no one has said that the babies had been kidnapped. They later were reunited with their mothers.

Guatemalan officials took a strong interest in the case. Robles said that he was simply a lawyer representing the interests of a Florida adoption company.