Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russian's ban row rolls on; TSJ judge claims he pre-judged her case

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Both sides dished it out in their own respective ways over the electoral ban as legalistic arguments grew ever more arcane.
Russián was on the defensive, albeit with a touch of defiance. He claimed his move against los inhabilitados was part of a series of new measures intended to "preserve the public patrimony of the nation and to put an end to the impunity."

The Constitution, he said, "establishes the equality of all the citizens before the law, there's no constitutional disposition that establishes that people who militate in or make political activities are exempt from administrative sanctions made by the Comptroller General's Office or in any case the competent organ that corresponds to the Venezuelan state."

Russian's critics claim he's gone way beyond his remit. They insist his powers to prevent people from running for elected office apply only to citizens who've been convicted and sentenced in court. They say this simply doesn't apply to people on his list, most of whom but not quite all hail from the opposition.

Russian was having nothing to do with that argument. He wanted, he said, to warn people who claimed that "the dispositions we are taking are unconstitutional" that they were "distancing themselves from the law." It wasn't just penal law that applied, but also civil or administrative law, he said, adding that the ban was an "administrative sanction". He cited Article 65 of the Constitution -- to which his critics repeatedly refer -- in defense of the ban.

For her part, Supreme Justice Tribunal (TSJ) Judge Blanca Rosa Marmol de Leon was in an equally combative mode. Russian had been reported to have passed comment on a request filed by the Republican Moral Council (CMR) -- upon which he sits -- asking the National Assembly (AN) to dismiss her from the bench.

Marmol de Leon submitted a legal writ arguing that the CMR hadn't been constituted properly when it sent its request because no one from the Attorney General's Office was present at the meeting. And she claimed that he'd pre-judged her case. The TSJ would first have to pronounce on her case before the legislature took any action in response to the CMR's petition, she added.